Ms Amelia van Schalkwyk, an academically brilliant master's student in Mathematical Statistics at the University of Pretoria (UP), was selected as one of the fifteen 2017 SAS Student Ambassadors.

This achievement earns her the opportunity to present at the 2017 SAS® Global Forum Conference in April 2017 in Orlando, Florida, where she will join over 5 000 SAS users from more than 35 countries for three and a half days of intense learning and networking. Her presentation at the conference is titled Behavioural spend modelling of cheque card data using SAS Text Miner.

Ms Van Schalkwyk is currently studying part-time towards an MSc in the Department of Statistics at UP after completing her honours in Mathematical Statistics cum laude in 2013.

In 2014 she started working as a Quantitative Analyst in the division Premium and Business Core Banking at FNB. Prior to this she was employed by UP as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Statistics. Ms Van Schalkwyk also tutored calculus to first year students at UP, as well as to matric learners from various schools.

The SAS Student Ambassador Programme is a competitive programme designed to recognise students using SAS software to benefit their respective fields of study. SAS is the leader in analytics and innovative analytics, business intelligence and data management software and services.