Union City Boy Makes it to Finals for Google Doodle Contest

Bay City News Service — When 7-year-old Matteo Lopez of South San Francisco grows up, he wants to become an astronaut and explore space. Albert Pei, 10, of Union City, has a very different dream: to become a painter.

The two boys have at least one thing in common, though. Both are finalists in the national "Doodle 4 Google" logo design contest and are now competing online for a $15,000 scholarship and $25,000 school technology grant.

Matteo and Albert are among 40 regional finalists whittled down from 107,000 K-12 students nationwide who redesigned Google's logo to incorporate the theme "What I'd like to do someday." Four finalists — one from each age group — will be chosen by Internet voters, who have until May 13 to cast their picks. On May 19, one overall winner will be announced.

Albert, a finalist in the fourth- through sixth-grade age group, attendsin Union City.

Read our interview with Albert Monday on Union City Patch.

Espiritu said the original 107,000 submissions were scored by Google staff based on artistic merit, creativity, theme communication and a supporting statement.

The 400 remaining finalists were then evaluated by guest judges such as Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Phelps, author Beverly Cleary and Garfield cartoon creator Jim Davis.

Once online voters narrow it down to the four finalists, the winner will then be selected by the Google Doodles staff and other company executives, Espiritu said. In addition to the cash prizes, the winner will be flown to New York for an awards ceremony, receive a free laptop and tablet computer, and have his or her design displayed on the Google homepage for 24 hours.

Information about voting is available here.