Ruby Scanlon Named Schwarzman Scholar
School of Education and Social Policy alumna Ruby Scanlon (BS22), an international antitrust specialist at the US Department of Justice, received a 2023 Schwarzman Scholarship, one of the world’s most selective graduate programs.
Designed to build better relationships between the U.S. and China, the program selected 150 scholars from a pool of more than 3,000 applicants to study global affairs during a one-year master’s program at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
A national mock trial and debate champion, Scanlon eventually hopes to serve in the U.S. State Department to help improve how the U.S. leverages international institutions to support developing countries.
“But that work is meaningless without like-minded partners across the U.S. interagency, the private sector, multilaterals and in countries across the world,” she wrote in her application materials. “The Schwarzman Scholars program can help me find those like-minded partners.”
At Northwestern, Scanlon studied international relations and social policy as a Posse First Generation Leadership Scholar, a program that recruits and trains people with extraordinary leadership potential. She interned at the U.S. State Department's International Organizations Bureau, and worked at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Last year, Scanlon led Northwestern’s Mock Trial team to eighth place at the American Mock Trial Association National Championship Tournament — the group’s best finish since 2015. She also won an individual attorney award, making her an All-American, an honor awarded to the best attorneys and witnesses in the country.
During the summer of 2022, just before embarking on a month-long backpacking trip in Colorado, she became the first Northwestern student selected to compete in Trial by Combat, an intensive competition that chooses the 16 best mock trialers in the country, and gives them just 24 hours to prepare a case.
The Schwarzman Scholarship won’t be her first trip to China; in 2019 Scanlon studied political economies and Mandarin at Peking University.
“Ruby embodies global citizenship,” said Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, director of Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships. “And she will flourish among her Schwarzman peers who share her commitment to leading nuanced engagements with China in our rapidly changing world.”