Middle and high school students and teachers from across South Carolina converged on Lander University Jan. 21 for the presentation of the 2012 Scholastic Art Awards, an event which Lander has hosted for more than 20 years. There were nearly a thousand entries, in categories such as painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography, and 204 were chosen for display in Lander's Monsanto Gallery, where they can be seen through Feb. 3. Earning American Vision, or best-in-show awards, were Alessandra Acierno, representing Charleston County School of the Arts; Lucy Counts, representing Richland Northeast High School in Columbia; Philip Hatfield, representing the Fine Arts Center of Greenville County; Courtney Leopold, representing Wando High School of Mt. Pleasant; and Kelly Tsao, representing the Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville. The five American Vision award-winning works will go on to compete in the National Scholastic Art Awards competition in New York. Monsanto Gallery director Eve Walling-Wohlford thanked Lander graduate and benefactor Linda Dolny for her longtime support of the event.