A group of 20 Pace University students were in Hawaii recently not for a relaxing getaway, but instead to film a documentary on the Kilauea volcano eruption.

The students spoke to dozens of people from the area to see how they are holding up after the volcano erupted last year.

"It puts them in the field," says professor Maria Luskay. "They're in pre-production, they're in production, they're in post-production--they're wearing every hat. They're doing everything and it's not made up."

The students tell News 12 they learned a lot about the Hawaiian people and their culture. They learned how Hawaiians thank the goddess of fire for new beginnings and how they don't let acts of mother nature tear them down.

"What they think is that she's blessing them with land and it's the fact that they don't really care that they lost their homes because some people lost their homes more than once, maybe up to three or four times," says junior Briana Cuttino.

The public premiere of the student documentary will be in May.