San Juan Record News Story: Local 12-year-old named finalist in Google Doodle competition

August 18, 2020

San Juan County, Utah: Noah Begay, a 12-year-old Blanding resident is one of 54 student finalists in the nation-wide Google Doodle contest. Noah, a 7th-grade student at Albert R Lyman Middle School represents the state of Utah in the contest.

The 54 national finalists will be narrowed down to five finalists through an online vote. Noah is in the grade 6-7 category. The contest is open now through Friday, August 21st, and Noah could use the extra votes online at the link below.

The image had to incorporate the Google logo and a theme. This year’s theme was “I can show kindness by…”

Noah’s drawing is entitled “Returning the favor”. The drawing has a winter scene on one half and a summer scene on the other. In the winter-themed portion one boy is handing another boy a jacket to keep warm. The other half of the google lettering is the same two boys, but now the one receiving the jacket is giving water to the boy who gave the jacket.

“In the doodle, I wanted to show that no matter what temperature it is you can always help someone,” Noah explained. “I also wanted to make the picture show more than one act of kindness to make it more interesting. I realized I could flip it, so the receiver is now the giver.”

Noah explains his art teacher at ARL told his class about the extra activity for them to do in March before the coronavirus. Noah spent his spring break drawing the submission and submitted it in early March. Noah found out he was a finalist in June and received a special package with prizes from Google in August.

Noah wants to be an artist when he grows up and is especially interested in being an animator or designer.

Noah is the son of Shawn and Kristina Begay. He is also the grandson of Clayton and Roise Long, of Blanding, and Harvey and Marie Begay, of Fruitland NM.

The San Juan Record article can be found here: https://sjrnews.com/education-life-san-juan-blanding/local-12-year-old-named-finalist-google-doodle-competition. Photo courtesy of David Boyles.

You can vote for Noah here: https://doodles.google.com/d4g/vote/