ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL)- On Friday, Elizabethton High School (EHS) held a celebration for nine students who competed and excelled in the PBS Student Journalism Competition.

The competition, which received student entries from 36 states, included three separate submission categories: audio, video and written. The high school had two groups submit their work – one for audio and one for video.

“I know we have amazing students; I know they can do some amazing work. They have done many other things too,” said Elizabethton High teacher Alex Campbell. “I think the one that really stood out to me was how much the community is willing to support the students.”

Community members came to the school ahead of the submissions to help instruct students in journalism techniques, such as how to conduct an interview and edit footage. News Channel 11 anchor Josh Smith was one of those community members that helped out.

Both groups won first place in audio and video. The prompt for the challenge was “My Education, My Future,” and the students got creative.

“I wanted students to know that they can have other options to learn, and they have other things they can do to better their education,” said Kara Cole, a junior at EHS.

Cole was part of the audio group, and their project was entitled “Unengaged, Uninterested, but Why?”

Brilee Hurley, a senior at EHS in the video group, said he learned more than just journalism techniques from the experience.

“The most I took away from this was just pushing yourself to try new things,” said Hurley. “It was a bunch of trial and error. We had to reshoot the video sometimes, do new recordings, but in the end, we figured it out and it made it all worth it.”

Both groups experienced challenges during the process. EHS student Makaylah Crowe said one challenge was working as a team.

“Definitely learning how to work with each other even through the disagreements,” said Crowe. “We definitely had a lot of disagreements in this.”

Trying to learn how to edit was difficult for the groups, but they managed.

“The most challenging thing was just not really knowing anything about videos,” said Hurley. “But we figured it out.”