He’s from the mountains of North Carolina, she’s from the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. They met in the College’s Craig Cafeteria in the fall of 1999. Less than two years later, they were dating – and, five years after that, Josh Hays ’03 and Sarah Permenter ’03 tied the knot. If they could survive late-night cram sessions for Western Civ together, they knew they could survive anything.

Indeed, cramming seems to be something the pair excelled in at the College; they were always trying to squeeze as many activities into 24 hours as possible. For Josh, a biochemistry major, the days were spent in class, the nights in lab and any time in between at the Mt. Pleasant–based financial trading firm Automated Trading Desk. For Sarah, an international business major, it was much of the same: balancing academics and her own part-time work.

They haven’t slowed down since. After graduating and continuing a career at ATD, Josh became a portfolio manager for Tower Research Capital, a financial services firm that specializes in quantitative trading and investment strategies. Sarah manages YuDu, her own personal-concierge business. Her clients’ needs are diverse. Some days her firm is managing survey results for a Holland-based professor who is monitoring the patterns of African migrants; other days, Yudu employees are searching desperately for a plethora of lime-green Tootsie Pops. At Yudu, whatever the client wants, they get.

Last year, the Hayses pledged a $50,000 gift to the College over five years. Split evenly between the College of Charleston Fund, the Cougar Club, the Honors College Dean’s Fund, the School of Business Dean’s Fund and the School of Sciences and Mathematics Dean’s Fund, the gift is meant to attract talented students to the College and lessen their financial obligations. The Hayses say they have not forgotten the scholarships and pre-professional opportunities they received as undergraduates, which helped enable their success.

“We wanted to give back to the College,” says Josh. “It’s what put us in the position to get where we are today.”