Mónica Ruiz House has dedicated her career to advocating for the rights of migrants. As a University of Chicago student, Ruiz House, AB’24, helped provide lifesaving resources to migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert, worked across historically segregated areas of Chicago to advance mental health care facilities in immigrant neighborhoods, and helped Afghani asylum seekers restart their lives in the U.S. with support from the Pozen Center for Human Rights.
Through these experiences, she has realized that such urgent interventions, while essential, are insufficient, given escalating global migration patterns and border policies that incentivize life-endangering treks.
Ruiz House’s efforts were recognized when she was named as a 2025 Marshall Scholar, which enables graduate study in the United Kingdom for a group of 36 students nationwide. This fall, she intends to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Oxford, where she will examine the human toll of punitive border policies and develop alternatives that protect migrant lives.
“This award comes at a time when immigrants are facing unprecedented threats to their existence,” said Ruiz House. “It is a call for all of us—not just the advocates or activists—to find their voice and speak of our shared humanity.”
She is the 30th person affiliated with UChicago since 1986 to win a Marshall Scholarship, which recognizes academic excellence, leadership and ambassadorial potential.
“Mónica is a dedicated public servant with a commitment to immigrant and refugee populations,” said Melina Hale, dean of the College. “We congratulate her on this significant honor.”
Mapping deaths at the border
Ruiz House grew up in the small town of Holly, Mich., about 50 miles northwest of Detroit and 1,700 miles from the US-Mexico border. Despite the distance, Ruiz House says that Holly sometimes felt like a border town. At home, her father spoke Spanish while she and her siblings spoke English at home. They cooked Mexican food with American ingredients, while most of their family was an entire country away.
“The Mexican-American historian Gloria Anzaldúa says that ‘to survive the borderlands, you must learn to live sin fronteras’ and be a crossroads,” Ruiz House reflects. “So whether I knew it or not, this bicultural background has grounded my work as a bridge for immigrants’ rights.”
Motivated by her personal experience, Ruiz House has been deeply involved with advocacy work along the US-Mexico border. Last year, Ruiz House was awarded a $10,000 grant from Projects for Peace to implement a grassroots project with an Arizona-based migrant advocacy group called No More Deaths.
Ruiz House and her colleagues at No More Deaths have been working on mapping the locations where migrants have lost their lives while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border over the past 15 years. Ruiz House said these deaths are a direct result of a 1994 Border Patrol policy called "prevention through deterrence." She herself has walked over 150 miles of these routes to leave water and administer first aid as a Wilderness First Responder.
Throughout her time in the College, Ruiz House prioritized community service—including her involvement in Seeds of Justice, a student leadership development program focused on social change—as well as extensive work with nonprofit organizations and grassroots campaigns focused on migrants’ rights.
“Mónica has been an incredible ambassador across campus and beyond for the value of service and civic engagement, and the importance of leading with those values,” said Nick Currie, director of student civic engagement at the University Community Service Center. “We are proud to have supported her as she explored her passion for social change and built connections with community partners as a first year in our Seeds of Justice program, and we’re prouder still to witness the trajectory that her passion and commitment has taken her on since then.”
“Mónica’s dedication to advancing the rights and dignity of immigrants is unwavering and has animated her work as a scholar, organizer, and volunteer,” said Sarah Johnson, director of undergraduate studies for the law, letters and society major. “I am in awe of her readiness to serve others wherever she is needed, whether that’s here in Chicago or on a military base in Texas or in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. She is exceptionally deserving of this honor.”
Ruiz House graduated summa cum laude from UChicago with a quadruple degree in law, letters and society; sociology; Romance languages and literatures; as well as Latin American and Caribbean studies. She also engaged in faculty-mentored research, contributing to Prof. Angela García’s research into the impact of municipal ID programs on undocumented immigrants and Prof. Chiara Galli’s study of the treatment of unaccompanied minors in U.S. immigration court. A 2024 recipient of the Hugo F. Sonnenschein Medal of Excellence, Ruiz House intends to pursue an MSc in criminology followed by a MSc in refugee and forced migration studies at the University of Oxford. She attributes her success to the support of her family, friends and partner; as well as her mentors, Noah Barbieri and Susan Gzesh.
She also credits the support of the fellowships team at the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF), which guides candidates through rigorous application processes and interview preparation for nationally competitive awards like the Marshall Scholarship. The CCRF team helps students like Ruiz House identify and articulate how their unique talents and distinctive paths prepare them to realize a better world. Additional support is provided by the Marshall, Mitchell, and Rhodes faculty nomination committee; its ongoing service is a critical part of student success at the national level.