HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — Hanover County Sheriff's Office drone pilots visited Georgetown School recently to give students a hands-on look at how drones are used in law enforcement.
Deputy Cameron Williams, an HCSO drone pilot, showed students two drones from the department fleet.
The visit was part of a maker-program, and STEM elective offered to students at Georgetown School during the summer.
"So today we have members from our Hanover County Sheriff's Office that are coming out with their drones to show our students. We have a maker program, a STEM elective that most of our students get to participate in here over the summer," Assistant Principal Brandi Holsey said.
Students got both an outdoor demonstration and an indoor question-and-answer session.
"They learn outside in a presentation, then inside the cafeteria, they're also getting a practical everyday use in a question and answer," Holsey said.
Williams walked students through the department's missions.
"We do search and rescue missions. We're attached to our SWAT team, so we deploy with them. We do overwatch as well as interior clearance for them," Williams said.
For rising ninth grader Noah McQueen, the visit sparked thoughts about his own future.
"I was actually thinking like, 'Wow! this is an amazing career to maybe pursue,' because they're learning about this, and they're actually just very good at what they do," McQueen said. "I just like the way how they can see everything from the high view, and I just love the way how they can just search for anything and find anything with those amazing, enhanced drones."
Holsey said experiences like this help students connect classroom learning to real careers.
"It's a really great opportunity for students to see that the learning they have in school really does have a purpose. They have built their entire career off of creating things that help make our world a better place," Holsey said.
For Williams, seeing young people get excited about drones made the visit worthwhile.
"It is awesome to see young kids get interested in this. There are so many options out here. To see [students] interested in something that I'm interested in and to be able to kind of guide them down that road and guide them to that process is a good feeling. It's an awesome feeling," Williams said.
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