12/12/2022

UChicago student named Marshall Scholar, aims to reform U.S. foster care system

Ricky Holder

Ricky Holder came to the University of Chicago on a mission. 

Having spent the second half of his childhood in the foster care system separated from his mother and four brothers, Holder came to Hyde Park determined to one day reform an institution that he considers the “least discussed and least understood issue in America.” But he first needed the tools to understand all of the issues.

Now a fourth-year student and Navy veteran studying public policy, his goal is to build a world-class welfare system for American children in foster care. 

“No family should suffer the same fate as mine, and no society should subsidize separation when its cost is so unconscionable,” Holder wrote in his application for the Marshall Scholarship. “I hope to construct the system I so desperately needed as a child while building a model of child welfare worthy of emulation.”

On Dec. 12, it was publicly announced that Holder received the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, which recognizes academic excellence, leadership, and ambassadorial potential. The Marshall will enable graduate study in the United Kingdom for a small cohort of students nationwide. With this support, Holder will take the next steps towards his goal at the University of Oxford in fall 2023, where he will pursue an MPhil in comparative social policy.

Click here to read the full story.

This story was first published by The College. 

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