NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Showing a unique combination of athletic prowess with excellence in the classroom, Augustana senior Lucas Simon (Notre Dame, Chicago, Ill.) was named an inaugural recipient of the James A. Sikich Scholarship. Simon, a three year letter winner on the Vikings basketball team, was one of just two students to receive the award, which was established earlier this year with the Illinois CPA Society.
 
Simon was named one of two recipients of the scholarship. The other winner was Brenda Tang, student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
 
He majors in accounting and business – management information systems and serves on campus as a career mentor, peer mentor for incoming freshman, and community advisor. He also was the winner of the ICPA's Mary T. Washington Wylie Scholarship earlier in his career. Coming into his senior year Simon has a cumulative GPA of 3.459.
 
"It's definitely an honor to receive this scholarship," Simon said. "It really feels nice to have hard work pay off and this is just a testament to that. I'm truly grateful for it."
 
In his junior season in 2018-19, Simon appeared in all 30 of the Vikings' games. He averaged 4.5 points and 2.4 rebounds per game, while logging 16 minutes per game.
 
He has played in 90 games during his Augustana career and has piled up 146 assists with 41 steals, 168 rebounds and has scored 273 points (3.0 average). He also has a .481 (99-206) shooting percentage from the field and has connected at a .745 clip (38-51) from the free throw line.
 
The Sikich Scholarship supports students who apply to the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) Accounting Scholarship Program. Students are selected annually based upon key criteria as established in cooperation with the ICPAS. This includes accounting students who have demonstrated leadership on campus, as well as students who are minoring in computer science or technology.
 
It is named after James A. Sikich and its stated goal is to support deserving students who apply to the ICPAS Accounting Scholarship Program. These scholarships help make an accounting education accessible and attainable to bright, promising college students.