Blue Angels

Florida Agricultural Education Teacher to Fly with the Blue Angels

Dan Agri-Business, Education

Blue Angels
Blue Angels perform at the Los Angeles Air Show in California. The air show features many fighter jets and the Navy Blue Angels performing.
Photo by KGriff/DepositPhotos

The Blue Angels Air Show will be featured in Pensacola, Florida this week. They’re welcoming a special guest to fly with them: Austin Courson, an agricultural education teacher, FFA advisor, and incoming assistant principal at J.M. Tate High School in Cantonment, Florida, located just North of Pensacola. 

Every year, the Blue Angels select a “key influence rider” for their work in the community. Courson was selected to fly with them on July 11 due to his steadfast commitment to his students, specifically in agricultural courses and the FFA. Under his leadership, the Tate FFA chapter earned its place among the top-performing 160 chapters out of 9,500 chapters nationwide. 

Courson teaches the Unmanned Aircraft in Agriculture course at Tate High School, which came about because of a funding grant from the State of Florida to teach the highly-specialized agricultural use of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Course. The course is designed to successfully link agriculture and aviation. 

(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)