PLEASANTON, Calif. – STANFORD’s Lauren Kim has been named the 2016 Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year, announced by the Pac-12 Conference during the championship Award ceremony at the closing of the Pac-12 Women’s Golf Championship in Pleasanton, Calif. These awards have been established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Kim, a senior from Los Altos, Calif., is maintaining a 3.29 grade point average in Science, Technology, and Society and is scheduled to graduate in May 2016. In the last two seasons, Kim has been honored with WGCA All-America first team honors, which recognizes student athletes for their outstanding academic and athletic achievements in women's college golf. During her Stanford career, she’s been ranked third in the nation by Golfweek/Sagerin and Golfstat this season, has a team-best scoring average of 74.36, recorded five top 10 finishes in seven stroke events and has not finished outside the top 20 this season. Kim now has 21 top 10 showings during her Stanford career, and is a two-time honorable mention Pac-12 All-Academic honoree.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50% of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season.  The athletic accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in the voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 23 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling.

The Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards was established during the 2007-08 academic year.

The Pac-12 Women’s Golf Championship took place from Monday, April 18 through Wednesday, April 20 in Pleasanton, Calif., at Ruby Hill Golf Club. USC was crowned champion of the 2016 Pac-12 Women’s Championship.

Other nominees included: Lindsey Weaver, ARIZ; Carly Childs, CAL; Alexis Keating, COLO; Caroline Inglis, ORE; Ashlee Pickerell, OSU; Louise Ridderstrom, UCLA; Kyung Kim, USC; Ying Luo, WASH; Nani Yanagi, WSU.