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UVI, Students, Professor Take Eight 2010 ADDY Awards

The University of the Virgin Islands, UVI students and one UVI professor recently garnered eight top awards in the Virgin Islands' 2010 ADDY Awards competition. ADDY Awards honor the best radio, TV, print and online advertising produced in the territory. They are sponsored annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

UVI students swept the competition's Student Awards category, with Paul Remy, Jr. taking the Student Best of Show ADDY for a poster titled Virgin Islands Scenic Locations. Remy, who works for MLB Creative, also received the federation's $1,000 Silver Medal AAF Scholarship in recognition of his academic excellence and community involvement.

Rounding out the contest's UVI student winners were St. Clair Hodge, who accepted the Silver ADDY Student Award in the Mixed Media Campaign category, and Ava Gumbs, who won a Silver ADDY Student Award in the Television category for a program titled "Inside VI-EPSCoR."

Remy, a 22-year-old senior marketing major who graduates later this month, is hoping to pursue a masters degree in marketing at Savannah College of Art and Design. He is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America. His advice to other students thinking of a marketing career: "You have to be out there, interactive." Remy said he displays much of his work - flyers, brochures, posters - through social networking sites such as Facebook, which is something that was recommended at an AAF District conference he recently attended. "Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. If I hadn't taken advantage of Future Business Leaders of America and if I hadn't taken advantage of Facebook, my work wouldn't have been seen," Remy said. "It links you to everybody."

Hodge, a senior business administration student with a concentration in marketing, said the ADDY award he accepted represented the work of a number of UVI students, including the members of a team in last fall's Business 234 class - Hodge, Keroma Pollock, Conniah McCarty, Keri Weeks and Nathleen Adams. The team also received video and audio editing assistance from Celestino Arriendell, Shawn Seabrookes and Dwight Winston. Arriendell and Seabrooks are current UVI students. Winston is a UVI graduate. Hodge, who is 28, is also the outgoing President of the UVI Ad Club. He expects to graduate in December.

Gumbs, 23, is a senior communication major specializing in broadcast media who will also graduate this month. Her award-winning video was created for UVI's VI-EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program as part of her senior internship program. She has applied to participate in UVI's Future Global Leaders of the Caribbean program this summer and hopes to study health communications in graduate school at Emerson College in Boston.

The University took six ADDY Awards. Of these, three were in the Radio category, two in the Advertising for the Arts category, and one in the Collateral category.

In the Radio category UVI took the coveted Best of Radio Gold ADDY Award - for a 60-second radio commercial featuring the "Afternoon on the Green" jingle by lyricist and composer Ashley "Ashanti" George - and Gold Addy Awards in the Music with Lyrics and 60-Second Radio categories.

UVI's Reichhold Center for the Arts received Gold Addy Awards in the Brochure category for its 2009-2010 Season Brochure and for its 2009-2010 Season Campaign. The University also won a Silver Addy in the Four Color Brochure category for the 2007-2008 UVI President's Annual Report.

Alex Randall, a UVI visiting assistant professor of Communication, won a Gold ADDY in the Online category for his daily Podcast from Paradise, which features weather, good news and music from the USVI. The program, produced by Randall, is hosted by VInow.com, where UVI grad Ansen Sligar is the web host. Podcast from Paradise is available at www.vinow.com/podcast and from Apple's online iTunes Music Store, where it has some 4,000 subscribers.

The 2010 awards were judged by a team of media professionals including advertising/creative directors Chic Davis, Lisa Colantuono and Leslie Winthrop of Baltimore and New York.