Yesterday was one of those (many) days where I felt the pride of working at SAS.

It all started when I read a News & Observer article detailing the plight of student journalists at NC State University's newspaper, The Technician, trying to get to St. Louis to cover their beloved Wolfpack in the Sweet 16.  Turns out, unlike some other local university newspapers, NC State's Technician has budget limitations and restrictions on where they can get their funding.  Mainly - they can't accept donations, and can only accept ad dollars.

As a proud alumni, I can tell you that we ALL knew they'd make the tournament!  But, these students - many of whom have never seen NCSU win a National Championship in their lifetime - had press passes to a game some of us alumni would kill to attend. And they couldn't afford to make the trip to use them.

That's when SAS stepped in.  Given our long-standing connection to NC State University, support of their Institute for Advanced Analytics and passion for analytics education, this was a no-brainer.

In less than one business day, a team of amazingly dedicated, passionate folks managed to secure funding and create the amazing full-page color ad to run in The Technician the very next day (and, the day that the Pack would take the court against Kansas).

As of midnight last night (Thursday), six student journalists were on their way to St. Louis - pulling an all-nighter to get there by 2pm to cover their team from the press table, the floor, and the stands.

I am sure proud to be a SAS "Pack Backer" today!

Regardless of who wins tonight, we all won something out of this.