He may not have realized it back then, but Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School alumnus Mitchel Lisowski had his life and career figured out by the time he started elementary school.

Now, more than 20 years later, the former Harrison resident has a television Emmy award that confirms he was on the right track from the start.

“Winning an Emmy for my work on the Wake Forest Football vs UConn Recap is an honor of a lifetime,” Lisowski said during a recent interview where he reflected on the path from camera-curious kid to award-winning filmmaker.

He first become passionate about filmmaking as a little kid.

“I was four or five when my parents gave me my first video camera to play with, VHS style, and it just sparked my interest,” he said.

Lisowski has not stopped making videos since. As a Harrison Elementary School fourth grader he won a districtwide moviemaking festival .

In high school he further honed his craft in digital storytelling through hands-on learning projects and assignments, experiences he credits the late Richard Macintosh, a former district support and IT employee, with inspiring.

While attending and then graduating from the University of Connecticut, Lisowski broadened his skills through freelance work.

“I did shoots for campus organizations,” he recalled. “Graduations, sorority recruitment, and things like that. I knew I liked content creation and production. Not necessarily with sports then but I was drawn to it by the fast pace and the story telling side of it.”

When the opportunity came to oversee digital production for the University of Texas at Arlington’s basketball program he found his niche.

“I fell in love with it and made it my career path,” Lisowski said.

With his growing film portfolio, Lisowski later found employment at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was hired as director of its sports division’s creative team and more recently was handpicked by football coach Jake Dickert to be the college’s senior director of football creative media.

In February, Lisowski was awarded his first divisional Emmy award in the Midsouth Division, in the SPORTS – One Time Special category, for his film about a high-stakes contest between Wake Forest and his alma mater, UConn, a road game Wake Forest won 23-20.

“It was such a surreal moment winning with a video I did with my current place of employment vs. my old school,” Lisowski said. “Hearing my name called was such a rewarding feeling. And knowing the work I’ve done on a daily basis … leading up to this achievement, had garnered this prestigious recognition.

“This doesn’t feel like a job. It does get hectic. It doesn’t go 9-5 and it will absorb your life at times. But if you love it? You never work a day in your life — you live it.”