Services Scheduled for Illinois Wesleyan Student Ashley N. Wilson on Tuesday, June 10

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Services for Ashley N. Wilson, 20, an Illinois Wesleyan University student from Oakwood, lll., will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 10, at Oakwood High School. Visitation will be from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, June 9, also at Oakwood High School.

Oakwood High School is located at 5870 U.S. Route 150 in Oakwood.

Wilson, a biology and psychology double major in the Class of 2005, drowned in eastern Australia’s Queensland state on May 31, while participating in the university's May Term course in marine biology. She had been swimming in the Mossman Gorge National Park in far north Queensland when she drowned.

A campus memorial service for Wilson will be held on the first chapel day of the fall semester, Wednesday, August 27, at 11 a.m. in Evelyn Chapel.

• The complete obituary from Sunday's Pantagraph

Memorial gifts may be made to the Ashley N. Wilson Scholarship Fund in care of United Community Bank in Oakwood.

At Illinois Wesleyan, Wilson was a member of the cheerleading squad and chief copy editor for The Argus. She was a member of Beta Beta Beta, a biology honor society, Alpha Lambda Delta, a national academic honor society for freshmen, and Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. She volunteered at the Humane Society.

"Ashley's death is tragic news for our community," said Janet McNew, acting president of Illinois Wesleyan. "Words cannot express the sense of loss that we feel. On behalf of everyone at the university, I extend profound sympathy to Ashley’s family and friends."

Wilson was participating in a four-week marine biology course that Illinois Wesleyan sponsors annually as part of its May Term. Fourteen students were accompanied by two group leaders, including biology professor Bruce Criley, on the program. The students had spent two weeks studying coral reef biology at the Orpheus Island Research Station and two weeks at the Queensland Daintree National Rain Forest.

Grief counselors met with the students while still in Australia, and university officials met the students when they arrived in Houston on June 2 and accompanied them to Chicago to offer continued counseling.

The marine biology course, which is historically one of the most popular of the university’s May Term travel courses, was among 11 programs on which students traveled abroad.