The Digital Media Productions program was honored at a city council meeting in April after winning a citywide video contest hosted by the City of El Paso Environmental Services Department. They received eight of the nine awards available in all three categories.

“I know what my students are capable of, now it is great to have everyone know what their abilities are, what they can do,” digital media teacher Marisol Rivera said.

The winners for the General Services category were Allison Falcon with first place and Gerardo Ramirez with second place. For the Recycling category, Leilany Unzueta took first place, Irvin Sanchez and Josh de la Rosa took second place, and Christian Pintor and Angel Gandara took third place. In the Animal Services category, Paulina Lopez took first place, Mickey Garcia and Connie Martinez took second place, and Jessica Tarin and Yumaira Herrera placed third.

“It was weird to win, but it made me feel like I have the talent,” junior Allison Falcon said.

The competition consisted of a 30-second PSA video highlighting services such as animal adoption, recycling and general services.

“I had to be creative and show them something new,” senior Jessica Tarin said. “It’s my senior year and it felt really good to win again,”

The students go through pre-production, production, post-production,  send in their videos and wait for results.

“I put a lot of time into it, a lot of hours, so I guess it paid off,” junior Paulina Lopez said.

The students do many competitions throughout the year that add to their resume, as well as work on Conquest Journal, which is featured every Friday during both lunches.

“It’s more experience for them. We work as hard for Conquest Journal as we do for competitions,” Rivera said.