Three Columbia High School students are now licensed to fly drones for commercial usage.
Freshman Raylyn Steele, freshman Layla Jones and senior Cedric Boyles have earned their Part 107 Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). They join Columbia High junior Joshua Shoulders as the first Richland One students to earn the certification before graduating high school. Joshua earned his certification in June 2025.
All four students are part of Richland One’s high school BLAST (Building Lasting Aerospace and STEM Trajectories)
national defense magnet program.
“These four students have joined the ranks of less than a hundredth of a percent of the nation’s elite teens. Our aerospace students are paving the
way for peers and posterity in aviation, proving what is possible when educational opportunities are innovative, bold and meaningful,” said Dr. Joy Obidike, the aerospace and STEM consultant at Columbia High.
