Harmony School of Excellence is generating buzz in a specific STEM-based competition.

AUSTIN, Texas — At the Harmony School of Excellence, they take competition to new heights – heights that are easy to reach by drone. 

The drone team at Harmony has been a hit since it was established in 2022, qualifying for the national championship competition in each of their first five seasons.

“We go through the obstacles and show our skills,” freshman flight pilot Ximena Rodriguez Salas said.

“We have the skills course, where it’s just one flyer going throughout the whole course,” senior flight pilot Noe Arias Lopez said. “Every obstacle they clear is worth points.”

Each drone team consists of four participants: a flight pilot, a skills pilot, an autonomous pilot and a writer.  

At Harmony, they have four different drone teams, with four interesting names: the Flying Chihuahuas, the Rotor Monkeys, the Pixie Pilots and the Flying Racoons.

“A lot of other people had just ‘Drone Team 1’ and other generic names,” Coach Rebecca Tims said. “We realized that people knew who we were because of our teams, and we would hear other people talk and be like, ‘Oh, Flying Chihuahuas are here – they’re really good.'”

The team names earned a reputation, and the results have as well. Two of Harmony’s teams have already qualified for the national championship competition, and the other two could join them very soon.

“We’re gearing [up] for the [regional championship] competition this Saturday,” senior autonomous pilot Ari Sameer said. “But we’re working more big picture for the huge national championship that’s coming up because that’s the big prize.”

For some of these boys and girls, drones will be a part of their post-high school futures.

“Our senior, Trey, he joined the National Guard and he’s trying to get into a program where he will be fixing the drones” Coach Tims said.

“I got to learn how to use drones to monitor the coastal change,” writer Chelsea Tapia Rodriguez said. “There’s also surveillance, like concerts, they use [drones] to make sure everything’s in place and no one gets lost.”

As the group prepares for the next step in their high school drone careers, they are also preparing for the next step in life – and doing so with the people they care most about.

“The skills that I’ve learned are great, but it doesn’t mean anything if I don’t get to learn them with people I enjoy spending time with,” Sameer said.

The team at Harmony is raising money to help them get to the national championship in Frisco, Texas. If you are interested in helping them, you can find more information on their GoFundMe.