Kevin Sterne, a student at Virginia Tech from Washington County, is among the guests invited to sit with First Lady Laura Bush at President Bush's State of the Union speech tonight.

Mr. Sterne, of Eighty Four, was shot twice in the right leg during the massacre there last April. He was able to stop his own bleeding to help save his life, and he has since returned to Virginia Tech to pursue a master's degree.

Mr. Sterne received degrees in electrical engineering and media communications in the spring.

Thirty-two people were killed and more than two dozen injured when Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old senior English major, went on a shooting rampage April 16. Mr. Cho then fatally shot himself.