Victor Ruiz '99 was honored with the Cleveland Foundation's 2024 Homer C. Wadsworth Award.
Victor Ruiz '99 speaks at BW's May 2021 Commencement ceremony.
Baldwin Wallace University alumnus Victor Ruiz '99 is the 2024 winner of the Homer C. Wadsworth Award for community service presented during the Cleveland Foundation's annual meeting.
The award was "established to recognize local leaders who reflect those qualities and demonstrate creativity, ingenuity, risk-taking, and good humor in a civic, volunteer, nonprofit, or public-sector role."
The award recognizes the exceptional nonprofit leadership demonstrated by Ruiz during 15 years as president and CEO of Esperanza Inc., a Cleveland-based nonprofit that focuses on education in Northeast Ohio's Hispanic/Latinx communities. Ruiz stepped down from that leadership post in June.
In presenting the award, Cleveland Foundation Board Chairperson Constance Hill-Johnson applauded Ruiz's "leadership and advocacy," which "have transformed the lives of thousands of families in Northeast Ohio's Hispanic Community."
A native of Puerto Rico, Ruiz moved to Cleveland 42 years ago and made a profound impact on access to education in the region's Hispanic/Latinx community.
In 2015, Esperanza was named a Bright Spot in Education by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
In addition to his role with Esperanza, Ruiz has served on several local boards and has been recognized as a Crain's Cleveland Power 150, one of the 500 most influential people by Cleveland Magazine and a Forty under Forty.
Ruiz earned his bachelor's degree in English from BW and later obtained a master's degree in education from Cleveland State University. In 2014, he was named a Baldwin Wallace Alumni Merit Award honoree, the highest recognition bestowed upon a BW graduate.
In 2021, he returned to his alma mater to serve as BW's commencement speaker and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Public Service.
He told 2021 graduates still wrestling with the COVID-19 pandemic, "Go out into this world with urgency and without fear, be vulnerable, open-minded, make mistakes, ask for help and put together a team that has your back."
"Lastly," he continued, "Do not let anyone tell you to stay in your lane or to wait your turn. The world moves too fast and changes too suddenly to sit back and wait for things to happen. So, make it happen."
Ruiz's own journey from a Baldwin Wallace University student to a celebrated community leader exemplifies how he lives by his own words of advice.
