Mary Sauer, recent graduate from Brigham Young University’s Illustration program, has found that hard work and perseverance have paid off in her education and career. She recently won Best of Show in the Portrait Society of America Annual Competition. Although Sauer applied to BYU’s Illustration program twice and was rejected both times, as mentioned in her convocation speech, Sauer later was accepted into the Studio Arts Program, and was soon accepted into the Illustration program as a transfer student. As a student at BYU she received various talent awards scholarships and worked hard in various workshops with prominent artists. In the years since she has graduated, Mary Sauer has worked with contemporary artist Jeff Koons and has continued in post-graduate work at the Art Student’s League and the Grand Central Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited in several shows in New York City and her work was recently selected to be in the Collector’s Choice Show, at the Sylvia White Gallery, in California. She was also awarded a Northern Manhattan Art Alliance Grant for 2012 and will be attending graduate school in the fall at one of the three graduate schools she was accepted into. By Cami Wilson