WASHINGTON — A D.C. high school student’s artwork is the “doodle” on Google’s homepage after she won a nationwide contest.
Akilah Johnson, 15, a 10th-grader at Eastern Senior High School, won the Doodle 4 Google contest, which asked for drawings on the theme of “what makes me … me.”
Johnson’s drawing is entitled “My Afrocentric Life,” and depicts figures, objects and names from distant and more recent African-American history. It includes the ankh, a symbol of life; a woman’s fist; the D.C. flag; people holding Black Lives Matter signs; and names from African-American history, including Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass.
Johnson says in the essay that accompanies her drawing that her goal as an artist was to “not only turn heads but souls as well — not only for someone to see it and be amazed by it but also to have them understand and connect with it.”
Johnson credits her art teachers, including Baba Camera, from her previous school, the Roots Public Charter School and Roots Activity Learning Center; and her current teacher, Zalika Perkins. Perkins and Johnson’s mother, Tikecia Johnson, went with Akilah to Google’s headquarters in San Francisco for the awards ceremony, USA Today reports.
“I didn’t think I was going to win,” Johnson told USA Today. “Then when I got up there and it hit me, I started crying so hard. It was unbelievable.”
Johnson was one of 53 state and territory winners; this was the first year that D.C. had its own category. She wins a $30,000 college scholarship for her work; Eastern gets a $50,000 education-technology grant.
She tells USA Today that she plans to study criminal justice or business in college, wants to be a CSI detective and wants to start an arts and crafts studio for kids.
