Photo courtesy of Luke Diel

When visiting Waynesburg University prior to the fall of 2017, sophomore Ryan Williams had the intentions of becoming a communication major with an emphasis on sports broadcasting.

Now, Williams is halfway through earning his degree in political science and is a member of the Stover Scholar Program.

Williams may not have discovered that program, he said, if it weren’t for meeting President Douglas G. Lee on his visitation day.

“I came on my visit and before my campus tour, we ran into President Lee and he stopped us and introduced himself to everybody and I told him my major, political science,” Williams said. “And he asked if we’d heard about the Stover Program and we hadn’t.”

Lee retrieved some information for Williams and his father.

When he returned,  he shared some information on the Stover Program.

“He went and grabbed a folder with the information about Stover and we talked about it, and then he said there’s a guy here named Dr. [Larry] Stratton and he’s the head of the Stover Program,” said Williams. “Then, he [happened] to walk by and [all three of us] talked more about it.”

After talking with Lee and Stratton, Williams decided against the sports communication route.

Instead, he applied to the Stover Program, received an interview and was accepted prior to the fall of his freshman year.

“Originally, Waynesburg wasn’t on my map at all,” he said.  “I thought it was a small Christian campus that I wouldn’t go to. And so originally, my dad wanted to come here for sports communications, but I looked at sports as more of a passion on the side and politics and law as something I was interested in.”

A native of Upper Saint Clair, Williams enters the 2019-20 academic year as the President of Student Senate following his campaign victory last week.

He ran on the idea of helping the senate become more well-known and transparent.

“One of the things I want to do with Student Senate is that I want it to be known,” Williams said. “If I’m being honest a lot of people don’t know [about] Student Senate and if they do, they really don’t know what we do or what our purpose is. I think that’ll be nice to get the students to know more about Student Senate.”

Williams didn’t serve any position of Student Senate during his freshman year and decided to become more involved this year taking a position with the Event Planning Committee.

During his time serving the senate this year, Williams said he has developed his communication and leadership skills.

“I think I have a solid work-ethic, [but] just like any human being I have flaws,” Williams said. “But with the higher responsibilities as president, I’ll be more focused. One of the things I want to be known as is a guy that can work with other people, not be too dictatorial with my leadership. I also want to manage my time better; I want to be approachable and open.”

Moving forward, Williams believes that Fiat Lux and other faith and service-based programs on campus have developed himself into the right person to serve as Waynesburg’s Student Senate president.

“That’s the positive thing about the Fiat Lux program,” he said. “We get involved in the community by giving our time to those who are in need of help and I think the one thing that has to do with faith and ties in with the Stover program is that the faith, good morals and good leadership were instilled into me.”