Skip To Main Content

School News

Senior is state winner for Doodle for Google contest

Kennedy Ferguson, a senior at The Potomac School, has been selected as the Virginia state winner in the 14th annual Doodle for Google contest. Her artwork is now eligible to be included on the Google homepage for hundreds of millions to see. Doodle for Google is an annual contest where K-12 students create their own versions of the Google logo, and Ferguson is one of the 54 state and territorial nominees whose work was selected. This year the theme for the competition was "I care for myself by..."

Ferguson explains, “My Doodle represents the ways I care for myself. My self-love language is self-expression, pampering, and indulging in things that make me the most happy and hopeful version of myself.”

A student in Potomac’s selective Visual and Performing Arts Concentration program’s fine arts track, Ferguson shares, “I have been fascinated with art since I was a child, and my passion has pushed me to always study, watch art tutorials, fill sketchbooks, and make insultingly bad crayon portraits of my family. This recognition means so much to me, and I am thankful for the opportunity to share my art with a larger audience.”

The judges for this year’s Doodle for Google contest are the 2021 National Teacher of the Year, Juliana Urtubey; director, model, and mental health activist Elyse Fox; and artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Selena Gomez.

The national winner will take home a $30,000 college scholarship, and their school will receive a $50,000 tech package toward the establishment or improvement of a computer lab or technology program.

Google has postponed public voting because of the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas. Once it resumes, this link (https://doodles.google.com/d4g) will direct voters to all the state and territory winners. Five national finalists will be announced once the voting closes, and the winning Doodle will be featured on the Google homepage for one day.

Search Stories

Recent news

Potomac Celebrates Music in Our Schools Month

As part of Music in Our Schools Month®, students in Potomac’s Upper School recently organized a concert titled “Celebrating Composers of Color,” which was conducted by guest conductor Dr. Steven Cunningham of Hampton University and resident musician and composer Greg Holloway.

AI Assembly Tackles Hot Topics

On Tuesday, the newly formed Upper School AI student committee hosted an assembly focused on the potential benefits and challenges of generative artificial intelligence. Students moderated a panel of three leaders in AI – U.S. Congressman Don Beyer, Professor Brian Hall, and Dr. Sarah Murphy Gray (Google) – who spoke to this technology's influence in politics, sports, defense, business, social media, and beyond. All three described themselves as "AI optimists," with a real sense of how AI could transform the world positively, but they guided students not to lose touch with the humanities as we learn these tools. Student moderators Kasim K. '25, India C. '25, and Arav B. '24 demonstrated real leadership in facilitating a discussion with the panelists and soliciting questions from the audience. This assembly was first and foremost student-generated, and it was exciting to watch their work over several months pay off. View photos from the discussion.

SERC Student Earns Top Honors in Regeneron Science Competition

Imagine a world where all amputees have access to affordable, life-changing prosthetics. That's the future that senior and SERC student Arav Bhargava is working towards; tackling complex problems with ingenuity and compassion. His low-cost, 3D-printed prosthetics aren't just devices; they are tickets to a world of possibility. This isn't a science project; it's a revolution in accessibility.

Two Seniors Named Regeneron Science Scholars

Congratulations to seniors Arav Bhargava and Max Zeldes, who were named Top 300 Scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024! Both are students in Potomac's Science and Engineering Research Center (SERC) program. This contest is the nation's oldest and most prestigious science/math competition for high school seniors. Under the mentorship of Dr. Isabelle Cohen and others, they've spent the past two years researching their projects.

  • Bhargava is recognized for his research: "Low-Cost, 3D-Printed, Universal-Fit, Transradial Socket for Amputees in Developing Countries."
  • Zeldes is recognized for his research: “Improvement to Electroencephalography-Based Imagined Speech Brain-Computer Interfaces Using a Targeted, Dense Array of Electrodes With Scalp Current Density Calculations.”

Amazing work, Arav and Max!