NATCHEZ &8212; From &8220;scribble-scratch&8221; art to award winning art, Robert Lewis Middle School student Hope Foster has been drawing most of her life.

Her hobby paid off this year when she won the Mississippi Department of Health&8217;s Lead Poster Contest and a $150 savings bond.

The eighth-grader entered the contest on her own after her art teacher mentioned it in September. She spent about three days researching the dangers of lead poisoning, and about a week drawing her poster at home and at school.

&8220;You can find (lead) in paint around old houses,&8221; Foster said. &8220;And you have to be careful around it. If you have a cut on your hand, it can get in your system.&8221;

She did her research on the Internet and drew a classroom of students raising their hands to answer questions about lead poisoning.

Other students from RLMS had planned to enter but never finished the project, Foster said.

The Mississippi Department of Health chose winners from elementary, middle and high school students across the state.

Foster, 13, has been drawing since she was 5 or 6, she said. With a few years and several art classes behind her, Foster&8217;s favorite thing to draw is landscapes.

&8220;I do them mostly from my head, but I may draw some outside,&8221; she said.

She&8217;s a straight-A student, who likes math and science the best. When she&8217;s not drawing she spends time on the Internet or reading.

The $150 savings bond came in December after a phone call saying she&8217;d won. It&8217;s money she&8217;ll save for college. Possible college options include Alcorn State University or Duke University, she said.

She is the daughter of Antoinette Foster.