Students at Hancock High School gathered in the gym Friday afternoon to discover one of their fellow students was selected as one of 53 nationwide finalists in the Google Doodle contest.

Hancock High School junior Marie Konopacki was selected from hundreds of thousands of other submissions as the finalist for the state of Mississippi. 

Konopacki said her doodle focused on her favorite things, magnolia trees, running and writing. It has two magnolia trees between the page of a scroll with a young woman running on the scroll.

Google has these competitions for the past three years, and features the winning doodle on their search engine page. This year’s theme was “What Makes Me….Me.”

Konopacki’s doodle took her about a day to plan and about three to four days to smooth out for submission. She said she choose her doodle based on her love of running, writing and the tree for her home state.

A Diamondhead resident, Konopacki said she is still trying to decide what she will do after graduation, but has several ideas, such as political journalism. 

Hancock County Superintendent Allen Dedeaux said Konopacki is just one example of the type of students that make up the school system.

“We’re so very very proud of her,” Dedeaux said. 

The event drew attendance from United States Senator Roger Wicker. He encouraged each and every student to focus on their interests, and build upon them to become their best. 

“Do your best to make it special and crush it,” Wicker said. 

During the presentation Google representatives showed a presentation of the types of projects the corporation is working on, and showed a video of their self driving car project.

Mississippi residents were urged to vote for Konopacki’s submission to help it reach the next level of the competition.