National FFA Scholarship awarded to local student

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- The National FFA Organization awarded a $ 1,000 Cargill Community scholarship to Mattie Uerling of Southwest High School FFA.
Cargill, as a special project of the National FFA Foundation, sponsors the scholarship. Mattie plans to use the funds to pursue a degree at University of Nebraska - Kearney. She graduated from Southwest High School May 2012 and is the daughter of Mark and Sherri Uerling. She will be attending the University of Nebraska Kearney this fall studying Pre-Pharmacy.
This scholarship is one of 1,539 awarded through the National FFA Scholarship Program this year.
Currently, 130 sponsors generously contribute more than $1.9 million to support this program. This is the28th year that scholarships have been made available through the National FFA Foundation by individualsand business and industry sponsors to reward and encourage excellence and enable students to pursue their educational goals.
Scholarship recipients were selected from 8,050 applicants from across the country. Selections were based on the applicant's academic record, FFA and other school and community activities, supervised agricultural experience (SAE) in, agricultural education and future goals.
The National FFA Organization is a national youth organization of 540,379 student members as part of 7,489 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The FFA mission is to make a positive differen~ in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
The National FFA Organization operates under a federal charter granted by the 81st United States Congress and it is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture.
The U.S. Department of Education provides leadership and helps set direction for FFA as a service to state and local agricultural education programs. For more, visit the National FFA Organization online (www.FFA.org), on Facebook (www.facebook.comlnationalFFA), on Twitter (http://twitter.comlnationalFF A) and FFA Nation (http://FF Anation.FF A.org).