A student from St. Andrews, Manitoba, was chosen as one of only 20 finalists from across Canada to compete in a national geography competition.

Ryder Bishop is only in grade 8, but he knows there are 23 countries in North America and a lot of other lesser-known geography facts.

That knowledge may not be the most exciting to some, but it certainly paid off for him: the 13-year-old spent the past weekend competing in a variety of games and contests in Ottawa as part of the National Can Geo Competition.

"I first found out about it by reading a Canadian Geographic Magazine, actually," shared Bishop. "There was a mention of it and I went online and did the first round and I did very well and they asked me to come to the national finals."

While he certainly has an inclination towards learning facts about the world, Bishop said he definitely had to study to qualify for the national competition.

"I did a lot of studying. On their website they had past questions that you can go and read and quiz yourself on, and also, [the] atlas. Just reading the atlas."

It's something he's driven to do without much pushing from her, said Bishop's mom, but she does encourage him to study and read so that he can continue to learn.

Bishop shared that one thing he's learned a lot about, especially studying for the national competition, is glaciers. "I didn't know too much about glaciers, so I had to do some research."

When he grows up, Bishop says his interests lie in the fields of aviation and logistics, as well as in communications.

For the time being, however, social studies remains at the top of his interests, at least in terms of school subjects. His teacher, Mrs. Yuskow, is the one that took the time to help Bishop prepare and register for the competition.

"She's been a big help and a lot of support," the eighth-grader shared.

He hopes that through being able to compete at such a high level, other kids will become more open to the importance of geography and understanding the world around them.

"I think it's pretty important, and it's actually a perfect way for people, kids to learn that in, definitely, an engaging way," he said.

"It's a fun way to learn about geography."