MONTROSE : Student Hopes Stamp Design Wins Approval

In April, 13-year-old Eun Young Seo of Montrose created an environmentally oriented stamp and entered it in a nationwide contest sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service.

She didn’t win--yet. But of the more than 150,000 youngsters from 8 to 13 who entered, Eun has qualified as one of 102 young students in the country who have received $100 U.S. savings bonds for their efforts and framed copies of their work.

She also will represent Southern California in the final judging to determine which four designs will appear on 200 million first-class postage stamps beginning in April.

Submitting a design that consisted of a frog, a waterfall, flowers and three children picking up trash and planting a tree near the border of a bare center, Eun’s intent was to get people to appreciate the precarious state the environment has fallen into in recent years.

“I was trying to show how pretty our environment still is and how we’re messing it up,” Eun said. “That’s why the middle of the design is bare, with almost no foliage.”

“I drew the children as an African American, an Asian and a Caucasian to show that it’s everybody’s responsibility to take care of the environment,” she said.

Eun, a freshman at Crescenta Valley High School, has attended art school for the last four years.

“In talking to her, I perceive Eun as a very mature young lady,” said Crescenta Valley High School Principal Ken Bierman.

“She’s celebrated by those who know her and is a competitive person, but I don’t believe she has it set in her mind that she will necessarily win. I think she recognizes that you put your best effort into something you do and hopefully you gain recognition for it. But, if not, that’s still OK.”

Four students will be informed later this month that they are finalists and will be flown to Washington, D.C., with their parents or guardians to take part in a Nov. 17 ceremony to unveil 96 new 1995 U.S. Postal Service designs on 27 different subjects. The student winners will receive a U.S. savings bond for $3,000. They each will have their designs on 50 million stamps next year.

As far as Eun is concerned, that last prospect is almost inconceivable.

“I was surprised to have made it this far,” she said. “I can’t imagine how much 50 million actually is.”