"...Out of thousands of contestants around the world, he was one of 58 winners. He is going to Google...."
Google Code-In is an annual contest ran by Google. Every year, interested Open
Source organizations apply and Google accepts more than 20 of them to becomethe Mentoring Organizations. Once the contest starts, the student participants areable to choose from thousands of available tasks to complete. Completing 1+ tasks,gains the student a digital certificate. Completing 3+ tasks, gains the student aGoogle Code-In T-Shirt. Students that are selected as a finalist by a MentoringOrganization, are given a Google Code-In Jacket. Those who are selected as aRunner-Up, get a Google Code-In backpack. A student who is selected as a GrandPrize Winner is awarded a paid trip to Google's Headquarters in San Francisco,California as well as a large selection of google merchandise.
Ray found about Google Code-In at the start of 2019. He has a love of coding andenjoys solving challenging problems. As soon as he saw the contest, he knew it wassomething he could excel at. On the 3rd December 2019 the competition registrationwas open, Ray signed up for the contest and a journey began.
Throughout the contest, Ray had many ups and downs, tackling one task afteranother, doing community and Infrastructure work while his tasks were awaitingreview. However all the hard paid off!
On Sunday, 2 Feb 2020, Ray received an email. He had been waiting for most of theday, since he knew that emails would be sent to the finalists, runner ups and winners. Ray had begun to wonder if perhaps he had not done enough. He also knew that no-one else in his organization had received one.
Then it came.
"You're a Google Code-In 2019 Grand Prize Winner!"
At that moment Ray did know whether to laugh or cry. Out of thousands ofcontestants around the world, he was one of 58 winners. He was going to Google.After ten minutes of waking up everyone in the house and telling them the goodnews Ray promptly notified Mr Shoebridge, his Digital Technology teacher, via email.Mr Shoebridge was aware of the competition and very supportive of Ray’sparticipation.
The next few weeks will be very busy for Ray, organizing everything for the trip withGoogle. In June he will be winging his way to the USA for a well-deserved reward.In July he will be back with a blog detailing his Grand Prize Winner's Trip.
Employment opportunities - click if you're interested in working at McGlashan.