Student Produced Videos To Get Big Screen Exposure At Cobo Center (Video)

By Edward Cardenas

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Videos created by five local students for the Cobo 30/60 Video Scholarship will receive big-screen treatment on Cobo Center's new exterior video boards.

The inaugural video scholarship tasked tri-county area high school and college students to produce "a 30 or 60 second video showcasing the character, determination and ingenuity of the city of Detroit, using Cobo Center as a focal point."

Ten students submitted videos, and high school senior Christopher Adams of L'Anse Creuse High School was selected as the grand prize winner. He said his inspiration was the rebirth occurring throughout Detroit.

"The renovations Cobo has been doing recently, and just the general renovations to the city of Detroit that really inspired to do this contest," Adams said. "I just jumped right in and did what I had to do."

Adams, who is planning to major in advertising or graphic design at Wayne State University, College for Creative Studies or Macomb Community College, received a $1,000 scholarship.

In addition to the scholarship, the videos produced by Adams and the four runner-up students will be shown on the 3,000 square foot video board at the corner of Washington Blvd. and Congress St., and the soon to be completed 4,800 square foot on Jefferson Ave. and Washington Blvd.

Four runner-up videos also were also selected, and the students will each receiving $500 scholarships.

"We had 10 fully qualified applications. They all exceeded our expectations," said Thom Connors. "Each video took an enormous amount of time, work and obviously talent. We are very pleased to have this kind of interest in the inaugural year of this scholarship."

The runner-ups were Hassan Bazzi of Dearborn High School:

Cheyenne DeWolf of Lakeview High School:

Tarik Dobbs of Dearborn High School:

and Chloe Dunklin of Lawrence Technological University:

The final phase of Cobo Center's $279 million renovation includes the installation of two external video boards. The Congress video board totals 3,000 sq./ft. and is at the corner of Washington Blvd. and Congress St. in the center of Downtown Detroit. The marquee board on Jefferson Ave. and Washington Blvd. is 4,800 sq./ft. and will debut this summer.