WHEELING, WV, May 10, 2011 — Wheeling Jesuit University has selected senior Ryan Norman as valedictorian for the Class of 2011.

Norman will address his classmates, their families and guests at commencement on Saturday, May 14, in the Alma Grace McDonough Center. The ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m.

An English major with a double minor of philosophy and music, Norman is from Garfield Heights, Ohio. He has distinguished himself academically by being a Laut Honors student and participating in the highly selective Ignatian Honors Seminar at the University. He earned a 3.99 cumulative GPA.

Norman plans on looking back to the many "last things" that graduates experience in the weeks leading up to commencement during his address.

"I'll also draw on the musical idea of composition to suggest that our teachers, families and friends have been composing us throughout our education and now we are taking a more active role in composing our lives," Norman said. "As we leave WJU, we will be solely in control, like never before, of the course our lives will take. We will compose the life we want to live."

He said recently that he has found Wheeling Jesuit to be a very supportive student environment and he has especially enjoyed the "many opportunities that he's had to get to know his professors better through student activities and clubs."

Norman is a member of the following honor societies: Alpha Sigma Nu, (National Jesuit Honor Society); Sigma Tau Delta, (English Honor Society); and Phi Sigma Tau, (Philosophy Honor Society).

He is also the president of Sense & Nonsense, the Wheeling Jesuit philosophy club. Other activities he has participated in include the Adventure Society, an outdoors and backpacking club, where he served as president and vice president; Jewelweed editor, the campus arts publication; and writer for the Cardinal Connection student newspaper.

Also a member of the WJU Chamber Singers, Norman has performed at many concerts and ceremonies over his four years of college and has participated in the annual student Cabaret as well as the spring musicals, "Man of La Mancha" and "Guys and Dolls." He plays the piano and studied with Fine Arts instructor Robert Troeger while at Wheeling Jesuit.

Norman has also participated in Campus Ministry, serving as a freshman retreat group leader. Additionally, he participated in the 2011 West Virginia Undergraduate Literature Symposium, held this spring at WJU, the annual WJU Student Research and Scholarship Symposium and the West Virginia Wesleyan Undergraduate Research Symposium.

A philosophy and writing tutor, Norman worked part-time in the Academic Resource Center during 2010-2011.

His post-commencement plans include serving in the AmeriCorps program locally, while he considers graduate school in English or philosophy.