Assembly offers thrills for Ames students, Google representatives

Harry Potter. That was the first name called out when Google’s PJ Anderson and Drew Rowny asked a room full of elementary school students to name a children’s character. Anderson and Rowny traveled from Silicon Valley to Ames last week to honor Nathan Hidajat for being chosen as a regional prize winner in the Doodle…

Nathan Hidajat (left) explains his Google Doodle at an assembly last Wednesday. PJ Anderson and Drew Rowny, both of Google, look on. Photo by Geoff Wood.

Harry Potter. That was the first name called out when Google’s PJ Anderson and Drew Rowny asked a room full of elementary school students to name a children’s character. Anderson and Rowny traveled from Silicon Valley to Ames last week to honor Nathan Hidajat for being chosen as a regional prize winner in the Doodle 4 Google contest (see our post: Hidajat named regional finalist in the ‘Doodle 4 Google’ competition). They kicked off the ceremony with a demonstration of Google products that are particularly applicable in the education setting. In this case, the product was Google Image Search, and the screen filled with images of Harry and others from J.K. Rowling’s fictional universe. Much to the delight of the kids, the Google team showed how results could be filtered by color — in this case, red — so photos were mostly of Harry in his Gryffindor House garb.

Following additional interactive demonstrations of Google Translate and Google Earth, Anderson and Rowny invited Hidajat to the stage to explain his winning entry and its charity: water inspired theme.

“I love Nathan’s Doodle,” Rowny said later via email. “I find it particularly impressive that Nathan’s doodle is focused on what he can do for others someday. The official Google Doodles celebrate all kinds of things, but many recognize the efforts of concerned individuals (see MLK, Gandhi, John Lennon doodles), and to see someone as young as Nathan get involved in that tradition is inspiring.”

This Google team spent just over a day in Ames, flying in the night before to take Hidajat and his father, Robert, out to dinner and explore the community. The highlight however, was definitely interacting with the kids at Hidajat’s school, St. Cecilia’s.

“This is my first time being involved with the Doodle 4 Google, and I absolutely loved it!” Anderson said in an email. “It was so inspiring to meet Nathan, his classmates, and the teachers at St. Cecilia’s and to see how they use Google products to learn, share, and change the world.”

Rowny shared similar thoughts. “I am always amazed by how engaged with the world people are from a very young age through the Web,” he said. “That kids in the assembly had watched videos on YouTube of all sorts of cool, interesting things (also, talking animals). Showing the teachers how to use Translate and Google Earth to give people access to cultures and places was very cool — in ten minutes, 200 people got to see Indonesia and the Washington Monument, White House and rest of the National Mall without leaving Ames, Iowa.”

You can view Hidajat’s entry as the winner for Region 6 at google.com/doodle4google. Votes can be cast through Friday.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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