Creating Pathways: TCB Drones Academy Brings Diversity to Commercial Drone Careers

TCB Drones Academy strives to bring diversity to drone industry

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

Whenever Steffanie Rivers, the proprietor and founder of TBC Drones and TCB Drones Academy, would attend an event along with her peers in the UAV industry, she would notice something; there were few people in attendance that looked like her.

So, Rivers, a Black woman, became determined to work toward making the commercial drone industry more diverse, largely by offering educational opportunities to women and people of color. “When I go to industry functions and when I go to meetings about contracts, there is a lack of diversity in this area, and I see the desire from people who want to get into this industry,” Rivers said in an interview. “And so, my team and I have taken on the challenge of helping people to do that.”

Recently, TCB Drones Academy announced the launch of a new program of two-day, FAA Part 107 readiness workshops in its home city of Dallas.

The workshops, aimed at increasing the number of certified drone pilots among members of underrepresented population groups, are expected to be hosted by city governments, other city and county agencies, high schools, universities, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and law enforcement departments.

Since becoming a certified drone pilot herself in 2021, Rivers launched TCB Drones, which offers a variety of drone-related inspection services — including inspections of buildings, roofs, utility lines and erosion-control systems – as well as drone photography and videography services for outdoor events. The company also offers a virtual three-day course for persons preparing to take the test for Part 107 pilot certification.

“We’ve seen that there is a lot of need, a lot of want from people who want somebody to help them to get through that challenge,” Rivers said. “All you need is a WIFI signal and a laptop to enroll in the course, and we can get you started.”

Later, seeing the need for recruiting the next generation of professional drone operators, she created the TCB Drones Academy.

For Rivers, the commercial drone industry offered a chance at a second career. A former journalist, she had worked as a newspaper and television reporter in eastern North Carolina and in Washington, D.C. When the COVID 19 pandemic hit the country in 2020, she, like many other people, began looking for a new gig with greater opportunities for professional growth.

“When COVID happened, most employees were put into one of two categories; they were put into the essential category or non-essential category,” she said. “I didn’t like the feeling of someone telling me that my job was non-essential. So, I started doing my research to find out, ‘Steffanie, how can you be the solution to somebody’s problem?’”

Rivers had always been interested in aviation and originally wanted to be a manned aircraft pilot, however the time and the expense required to secure enough flight hours needed to get a manned aviation license proved to be prohibitive.

“I landed on drone technology as being the fastest growing segment of the technology industry. And so, I said to myself, ‘You need to start a drone company. And so, I did.”

She got her Part 107 certification and took a drone course at Austin Community College, in order to get some hands-on flight experience. “Currently the FAA does not require a person to have practical drone skills to get their Part 107,” she said. “I’m not doing this just so I can get certified. I actually want to be a great drone pilot and deliver great service.”

Rivers said she is the first Black woman in Texas to start a drone company and the first to offer a drone training academy. She said that as she attends various industry meetings and conferences, her fellow attendees are often surprised that she is even in the room.

In her role as a drone entrepreneur, she has proved to be an inspiration to other women and people of color who want to break into the industry. “It has been eye-opening, the number of people who also want to get into this field,” Rivers said.

Drone training as an opportunity for growth 

In an effort to reach out to young people at the start of their careers, TCB Drones has contracted with the Dallas Independent School District to launch a drone training program for high school students.

“It’s turning out that a lot of high schoolers are opting to not go to college for whatever reason. It costs too much money; they need to go straight into the workforce; they don’t think school is for them, whatever reason,” Rivers said. “We can’t leave those people behind. And it turns out most of those people are Black and brown people.”

In a similar outreach, she said TCB Drones has worked with HBCUs, to reach out to college students who might be on an aviation track but who had never considered becoming a drone pilot as a potential career path in that track.

“We’re not saying that we’re not working with anybody who’s not Black or brown. That’s not our goal,” Rivers said. “We just know that most of the time we are the people who are left out of the equation.” She added that part of her mission as an educator is to let young women and girls know that there’s a place for them in the industry.

Rivers said that becoming a certified drone pilot can open up a wide range of opportunities, ranging from the chance to begin earning extra income in a part-time job to entering an entirely new career field. “With the current situation of people’s jobs not being as secure as they thought they would be, people are looking for something that they can do as a second job, a new main job or a side gig, whatever you want to call it.”

TCB Drones Academy not only helps students become certified drone pilots, but also teaches them the basic skills, which they will need as they go on to pursue careers in any number of UAV-related industry segments, she said.

“Once a person passes the Part 107 exam and they get their drone pilot certification, then we say to them, ‘What area do you want to work in? Do you want to focus on utility-line inspections? Do you want to do weddings? Do you want to do search and rescue?’” she said. “So, it’s not like we’re leaving them just with the certification, because now they’ve got to get that practical training, and that’s what we do as well.”