An ʻEwa middle school put Hawaiʻi on the map when it placed first in a national drone competition in 2024.
It continues to push the envelope, with one former student going on to start a program in Australia.
Next month, two eighth graders will head to Atlanta to compete in the first national commercial competition to include a middle school category.
The Conversation saw the students in action. They were piloting a drone in what looked like a batting cage.
But this is so much more than child’s play. It's a chance to test real-world skills, from developing construction surveys to search and rescue.
Rinarose Palacpac and Rachel Kauihou are eighth graders who will represent ʻEwa Makai Middle School in the Georgia competition.
The pair has gained valuable life skills through the program that they plan to apply to their future careers.
“I want to pursue aerospace engineering, and I want to head into a college that could help me gain that experience for jobs like that,” Palacpac said.
“I used to be very individual,” Kauihou shared. “I was never really good at working with other people, but through the drone program, I've learned how to work as a coder with my teammates, how to program, and how to actually talk to people better, and have more social and communication skills.”
And Addysin Kim is a seventh grader who discovered she loves piloting drones.
“I just feel like I have a passion for it, especially piloting it,” Kim said. “I was a coder last year, so I think coding drones is pretty OK, but I'm more into flying and piloting them. I feel like that's super engaging and fun.”
Keao Cockett is their aviation pathways instructor. He is bursting with pride over what the students have accomplished.
“Kids that you saw today have been in a lot of different aspects of my program, from the after-school competitions, which we did nationals, to the industry workforce-related competitions, as well as our CTE courses — career technical education — which focuses on industry use, enterprise-type use of this equipment,” he explained.
Cockett began as an aviation instructor, but after acquiring a couple of small drones, he and a few students launched the program.
“We were asked by Kalani High School if we wanted to come and compete in an extracurricular team type thing," Cockett said. “We did. The kids did great. They fell in love with it, and from there we started an entire program.”
After the team won a national competition, Cockett started to integrate lessons into the curriculum that showed how the program connects to future careers and the workforce.
The team's upcoming competition in Atlanta will focus on industry skills, challenging them to see if they are ready for the workplace and capable of thriving in a particular industry.
“I think since the beginning of our programs, the question has always been, ‘OK, what's next? What do they do after this?”’ Cockett said. “And my plan has always been — we grow it from the bottom up, because this technology is going to be so commonplace, and it's not going away. Our kids are going to start in the field, running with the crew resource management, safety setup, operations, in order to thrive in a lot of different things.”
Learn more about the ʻEwa Makai Aviation Pathways here.
This story aired on The Conversation on May 20, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
