Ironton High School senior Shawn Cosby clenched his fists and took a deep breath in anticipation. When he heard his name, he sprang from his seat and began the walk that would end with his accepting a first-place award for best animation.

Cosby was one of the more than 140 students from eight area high schools who were in attendance on Friday when the winners of 15th annual Ohio University Southern Student EMPixx Awards were announced in the Bowman Auditorium.

A promotional video about the OUS electronic media department was shown and a montage comprised of clips from entries was shown prior to announcing the winners.

“We emphasize hands-on education,” Don Moore, associate professor and director of the OUS electronic media department, said. “Our department provides the education, tools and confidence our students need to do their jobs.”

Now in its 15th year, the goal of the EMPixx Awards is to give high school students an outlet to showcase their talents.

“Students compete in sports, band and academics,” Moore said. “We wanted to recognize those students with artistic talent in audio, video and multimedia areas. The awards program also gives us the opportunity to introduce the students to professionals in the field through workshops they attend during the morning sessions.”

The competition is open to high schools in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky that have a video/TV/computer animation production class and students who are exploring these fields on their own. The electronic media department of OUS presents the annual awards to recognize high school-level video production and computer animation excellence.

Moore said the competition gives high school students an opportunity to showcase their artistic ability while engaging with fellow students from different schools.

“Not only does this give them the chance to put a trophy in their school’s trophy case, it also gives them a forum to meet students with similar interests,” Moore said. “It also gives us a chance to bring them to campus, which is always a plus. When they see your facility, your campus and see what your students are doing, it is a good thing.”

Chesapeake, Fairland and Ironton high schools as well as Collins Career Center represented Lawrence County at the awards along with Bloom Carroll High School, Chillicothe, Dublin and Pike County CTC in Ohio, Fleming County, Ky. and Lewis County, W.Va.

A total of 153 entries were submitted and first- and second-place awards given out by electronic media department personnel to winners in animation, audio production, digital photography, entertainment, independent, multimedia print, multimedia Web, news cast, news feature/story, radio commercial, sports news feature, video commercial, judge’s choice and best of show.

Fairland garnered the most first-place wins of any school in the competition with five — judge’s choice, best of show, multimedia Web, news feature and sports feature. Fairland also claimed second place in the entertainment, newscast, news feature, sports news feature and video commercial categories. Chesapeake took home two first-place and one second-place award; first in entertainment and independent and second in radio commercial. Collins Career Center claimed a first and second-place in the audio production category and another first-place in radio commercial. Cosby’s animation submission was Ironton’s lone first-place win.