Pronounced: ARE-ee-el • WILL-son

High School
Four-year volleyball letterwinner and one-year basketball letterwinner at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Ill. ... three-year varsity volleyball captain and four-year starter for the Pirates ... earned all-state, all-conference and all-area honors her senior season ... two-time team Most Valuable Player ... ranked seventh nationally by Prepvolleyball.com in 2006 ... named one of the top 50 recruits in the nation in 2007 ... tabbed by Mizuno as the best middle blocker in 2006 ... member of the 1st Alliance Volleyball club program ... was also named the best rebounder for Varsity basketball at Proviso East, helping her team to the regional championship during her junior season ... four-year member of the honor roll and was named all-academic for varsity volleyball during senior season.

Personal
Born Arielle Dwan Wilson on Jan. 3, 1989 in Chicago, Ill. ... parents are La Verna and Robert Wilson ... is an only child ... cousin Pettis Norman played football for the Dallas Cowboys, uncle Dennis Wilson played football at Iowa State, uncle Craig Norman played basketball at Triton College, uncle Otis Parks played basketball at Morris Brown College and cousin John Parks played football at Savannah State ... plans on majoring in nursing ... names hobbies as drawing, painting and ceramics, favorite musical entertainer as India Arie, favorite pro sports team as the Cleveland Cavaliers, favorite athlete as Lebron James, favorite food as anything with shrimp in it, favorite book as "The Skin I'm In," favorite television show as "Grey's Anatomy," favorite movie as "Crash," favorite actor as Denzel Washington, favorite actress as Kimberly Elise and favorite place to visit as the lakeshore and downtown Chicago.

Why I Chose Penn State
"I chose Penn State because of its academic expectations for student-athletes, the continuous successful volleyball program, the wonderful coaches and the friendly and hardworking teammates."

Quoting Russ Rose
"Arielle is coming in as a talented, physical offensive player. As she gets into our system, we'll see if this is going to be a year where she needs to develop and learn what our expectations are or if she's going to come in and hit the ground running. I won't know that until she gets into the gym in the fall. She's an explosive attacker, especially off of one foot, with the ability to hit high, hard and quick. Those are great traits to be able to come in and help the team. The question is whether she'll be able to adjust to the speed of the college game and the level we're playing at from a blocking standpoint early enough to compete for a starting spot."

Wilson's Expectations
"My personal goals are to mentally and physically be able to maintain myself on and off the court. My team goal is to work hard in practice, so that perfection is performance."