Mónica Ruiz House graduated summa cum laude from the University of Chicago as a quadruple major in Law, Letters, and Society; Romance Literatures and Languages; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; and Sociology. An avid humanitarian, Mónica has hiked over 150 miles on migrant trails in the Southwest, volunteered in military-bases-turned refugee camps, and has been certified as a Wilderness First Responder. Her dedication to immigrant justice earned her the University of Chicago's highest undergraduate honor, the Sonnenschein Medal of Excellence.

As a Marshall Scholar, Mónica plans to study the human cost of migration policies and the deferral of responsibility onto the natural world. She plans to pursue an MSe in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies and an MSc in Criminology at the University of Oxford.