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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Three Billingsley High School FFA students were selected as national finalists in the National FFA Agriculture Fair. The team of Kayden Bland and Tanner Truesdale and individual Caleb Hornady were selected by judges and will compete in the social science category of the competition.

The National FFA Agriculture Fair is part of the annual National FFA Convention & Expo held in Indianapolis, Indiana each year, and from Oct. 23-26 this year.

There are six divisions in the agricultural fair that students can compete in — teams in grades seventh-eighth, ninth-10th and 11th-12th; and individuals in grades seventh-eighth, ninth-10th and 11th-12th. There are also six different categories the students can choose to compete in — animal systems, environmental services/natural resource systems, food products and processing systems, plant systems, power, structural and technical systems and social science.

To be selected as a finalist, FFA members work as individuals or teams in grades seventh-12th to create a scientific research project pertaining to agriculture industries. They must win their state’s FFA agriculture fair as well to qualify for the national pre-qualifying judging where a panel of judges review entries and select a maximum of 10 in each category and division to move on to the national competition.

Bland, Truesdale and Hornady all competed in the social science category and won their state FFA agriculture fair. During the judging, Bland and Truesdale were selected as national finalists in division four in social science, and Hornady was selected as a national finalist in division one in social science.

The three BHS students were selected from more than 1,027,200 FFA students in over 9,235 FFA chapters in all 50 states, according to a press release from the National FFA Organization earlier in August.