June 3, 2004

Simonds Elementary student wins silver medal
in major art contest

By Miranda Schultz
Staff Writer

Almaden’s Yae-Won Yun has won a major art contest at the ripe old age of 10. The Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification in Korea recently held an art contest to illustrate the interest in the unification of North and South Korea. Out of 5,554 elementary school-age participants, Yun received the silver medal, and 11 other young artists were recognized. Their artwork will be displayed through June 21 in the Seoul National Park for Children.

“She is an awesome child,” says Linda Kakes, principal at Simonds Elementary. “She has a wide variety of interests, and she is just fascinating.”

Yun speaks four languages, German, Swiss-German, Korean and English, which isn’t a surprise when she tells you she’s lived in Germany, Switzerland, Korea and the United States in her short 10 years. German, she says, is her favorite language.

Her inspiration for her prize-winning artwork arose from living in Korea. “I think it’s a nice thought, for North and South Korea to gather together one day, smiling,” says Yun. This idea is portrayed through her watercolor piece, a unified and smiling Korea.

Yun says that she has always liked to draw. “When I lived in Europe, my dad used to take pictures and I would draw them, and I would also draw things that I would see. I started doing this from the time I could hold a pencil,” she says. Her favorite media is sketching with pencils.

Kakes says, “She is a very bright girl, an excellent student with a great personality.”

“She is a perfectionist,” Yun’s friend Nikita Shah giggled while describing her friend, “and sometimes she is very outgoing.”

Yun says her favorite activities are hanging out with friends, drawing and playing music, and she has been playing the piano and the violin for almost four years.