Stuart Powell Ford, Inc. and The National FFA Organization partnered equally to award a $1,000 Built Ford Tough FFA scholarship to Emma Nolan of the Boyle County FFA Chapter.

Emma plans to use the FFA Scholarship fund to pursue a biochemistry degree at Bellarmine University with an intended career as a plant geneticist.

In her FFA service, Emma served as leadership committee chair, assistant secretary, chapter secretary, and Bluegrass Region vice-president. In addition, within the organization of the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) she serviced as vice-president of membership, president, and 4th Region vice-president of membership. And in the 4-H organization, she served as secretary/rreasurer.

Emma’s FFA advisor at Boyle County High School has been Toni Myers. Her GPA on a 4.0 scale was 3.96, and her class rank was 12th in a class of 189.

Emma said, “This scholarship would be able to help me make a difference in the agricultural industry through furthering my education. I have a passion for agriculture and it will be fully shown through me starting a career as a plant geneticist. FFA is the reason for my desire to make a difference in this world and I hope that I will be able to help feed an increasing population and make the world healthy for future generations.”

Her scholarship is one of 1,883 awarded through the National FFA Organization’s scholarship program this year. Currently, 115 sponsors contribute more than $2.7 million to support scholarships for students.

This year marks the 33rd year that scholarships have been made available through funding secured by the National FFA Foundation. This generous funding comes from individuals, businesses and corporate sponsors to encourage excellence and enable students to pursue their educational goals.

Scholarship recipients were selected from more than 8,300 applicants from across the country. Selections were based on the applicant’s leadership, academic record, FFA and other school and community activities, supervised agricultural or work experience in agricultural education and future goals.

The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 649,355 student members in grades seven through twelve who belong to one of 7,859 local chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.