"I’m very honored to receive this award," admitted McNamara, who accepted the award at a reception in his honor at Slagle Hall on The U’s campus. "I didn’t see anything like this coming, but I’m very grateful that people think so highly of me to nominate me for this honor."

McNamara was nominated for the award by Willard Forsythe, programmer/analyst in Information Technology Services. Forsythe noted McNamara’s hard work and dedication at making ITS more efficient at USD.

"Andrew is a great person helping team members when they have a problem solving requests that they need help with," Forsythe stated in his nomination of McNamara, who has been a programmer/analyst with ITS since 2006.

"He is a valuable asset to our department and to USD as a role model employee," added Forsythe, "he works hard at working with the customer’s requests helping to resolve their problems with Banner and Datatel issues."

McNamara, a Sioux Falls, S.D. native and graduate of O’Gorman High School, received his bachelor’s degree from USD in 2004 and a master’s degree from The U in 2005. The former offensive lineman on the Coyote football team originally majored in Pre-Med but fell in love with computers shortly after arriving on campus.

"I had worked in an electronics store between high school and college, and just kind of fell into it," described McNamara, who presently resides in Vermillion. "After my first year, I just decided I liked working with computers a lot more."

While his day-to-day responsibilities vary from monitoring system related issues to assisting with customer requests, McNamara says he really enjoys ITS at USD because of the people he works with.

"I really like the crew that I work with along with the face-to-face customer interaction," explained McNamara, the son of Greg and Laurie McNamara. "The days can be hectic but there are always laughs involved."

A photo of McNamara receiving his award from President James W. Abbott is available for download at www.usd.edu/urelations/images/Andrew_McNamara.jpg.

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