Alexander Tyson takes great care of his prized possession, surrounding it in bubble wrap inside the box it was mailed in about six weeks ago.
Most people have a hard time believing it's an Emmy until he pulls it out of its protective shell, Tyson said.
The 21-year-old La Cañada High School graduate won the 2009-10 Northern California Area Emmy from the San Francisco/Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work as an assistant editor on Mark Kistler's "Imagination Station" — a public television show that taught kids how to draw in 3-D.
"I went into it without really thinking it was actually going to make it," said Tyson, a junior at Columbia College Hollywood in Tarzana said. "I thought it was just some gig that I would get some experience on."
The show was a collaborative effort between a group of students from the ITT Technical Institute, who were picked to help edit the 26-episode series, and student from Ferris State University and San Jose State University students who helped with the animation.