While others talk work force solutions, this Albany robotics team is building them

ALBANY — In a brightly lit “STEM gym” tucked inside a public charter school, a group of high school students is quietly doing something many communities spend years trying to figure out: building a work force pipeline that actually works.

Relaxed but focused, they sit haphazardly across the floor, eyes locked on their team captain talking through competition strategy. They’re not sitting in rows. They’re not memorizing for tests. They’re designing, wiring and programming competition robots — machines sophisticated enough to compete on a global stage — while learning the kind of skills local employers say they can’t find.

And they’re doing it right here in Albany.

At the center of this gathering is the Commodores 6919 Robotics Team at Commodore Conyers College & Career Academy, a specialized charter school drawing students from across Dougherty, Terrell, Baker, Lee and Calhoun counties. In a matter of days, they’ll head to Houston to compete at the FIRST World Championship — one of the largest robotics competitions in the world.

But the competition itself is only part of the story.

What’s happening inside this lab may say more about the future of education — and the future of Albany — than many realize.

FIRST, the global nonprofit behind the competition, has built its reputation on a simple premise: Students learn best by doing. At 4C Academy, that philosophy has formed the foundation of the school’s culture and approach to learning.

“The mission is to produce college- and career-ready graduates with relevant skills, education and an exceptional work ethic,” Chris Hatcher, the CEO of the academy, said. “Students who can compete and succeed in the real world.”

Inside the robotics lab, that mission takes shape in real time. Students operate like a company — divided into mechanical, electrical, programming, media and business teams. They design and build robots from scratch, develop autonomous code, attract sponsors, manage public relations and present their work to judges.

They also win. And then, the process begins again: refining, rebuilding, improving.

“It’s a game, and they love it,” Hatcher said. “But what they’re really learning is electrical, programming, mechanical — and just as important, teamwork, communication and work ethic. That’s what every employer is asking for.”

For all the intensity, what stands out most for the students isn’t the competition — it’s how they compete. Despite operating at a high level, the team carries itself with a quiet confidence defined by competence, and grounded in discipline, not ego. That culture traces back to FIRST’s philosophy of “gracious professionalism,” a concept that blends competition with respect.

And it shows.

“We pride ourselves on being respectful to everyone,” Reaghan Bush, team captain of The Commodores, says. “We don’t really have any rivals.”

Despite it sounding somewhat idealistic, that approach is built into the structure of the competition itself.

“At competitions, you’re in an alliance with two other teams at all times,” Bush said. “One match, you’re with a team, the next match you might be against them. So it’s important to stay respectful and work well with everyone.”

Hatcher said the format reinforces that mindset.

“That’s why it’s important to be on your best behavior; it’s a very well-thought-out system,” he said.

Even within that collaborative environment, the level of competition is real — and constantly evolving.

“Every competition gets harder, so you have to constantly update and improve the robot,” Louis Alexander, the team’s co-captain who oversees programming, said. “You’re always adapting.”

That adaptation often means learning from the very teams they’re competing against.

“You’ll see other robots and think, ‘That’s really good — we should try that,’” Alexander said. “Steal from the best, invent the rest,” he added playfully.

In that way, the competition mirrors the real world — fast-moving, collaborative and driven by continuous improvement.

The scale of the world championship is difficult to overstate. More than 600 teams from across the globe will compete — from the United States to South America, Asia and beyond — while major companies and universities recruit directly from the event. Even the team’s own number is a reminder of just how broad the competition is: 6919 reflects its place in FIRST registration — assigned after 6,918 teams had already registered before them.

For many students, it’s exposure they would not otherwise have.

“For communities like ours, that matters,” Hatcher said. “It’s not always easy to recruit high-tech talent into smaller markets. So the investment we make is in the students who are already here — the ones with roots here — and giving them the skills and opportunity to come back.”

From that perspective, the robotics program isn’t just education. It’s economic development.

And for the students, the impact is immediate.

“It’s everything,” Bush said. “We work with sponsors; we run outreach programs; we mentor younger teams. It’s not just building a robot — it’s what you do for your community.”

Her goal for the world championship isn’t just winning.

“I want to meet people,” she said. “There are opportunities to connect with different careers — NASA, engineering programs, companies. It opens doors.”

Across the lab, Alexander is focused on the code that drives the robot — particularly the autonomous systems that allow it to operate without human control.

“It’s problem-solving constantly,” he said. “You’re always improving, always updating.”

But the most significant changes, both students say, aren’t technical. They’re personal.

“You see people come in quiet, not really talking,” Alexander said. “And by the time they’ve been through competition, they’re confident. They’re communicating. They’re leading.”

That transformation is by design.

Programming instructor and head coach Darren Hagler said robotics places students in situations where growth is unavoidable.

“They have to present. They have to collaborate. They have to solve problems in real time,” Hagler said. “What you see over time is confidence — students who might not have spoken up before are leading conversations, explaining their work and owning what they’ve built.”

It’s a shift educators say traditional classrooms often struggle to produce. Here, it’s built into the system. Students begin with career exploration, move into specialized pathways, earn certifications and, by their senior year, often transition into internships, sometimes already working in the industries they plan to enter.

“We’re not just teaching content,” Hatcher said. “We’re building a pipeline.”

For a city often defined by work force challenges and economic constraints, the robotics lab offers a different narrative, one where students from southwest Georgia are already competing and succeeding on a global scale.

A narrative where education is aligned with industry, and where innovation isn’t something in the distant future. It’s already here.