She attended Knox College for her B.A. in English Creative Writing with a minor in the Pedagogy of Poetry. While there, she worked for the Association for Black Culture Centers (A.B.C.C.) under Dr. Fred Hord and Ms. Terry Duffy. In addition, she was a TRiO Achievement Program scholar, as well as a Ronald E. McNair Fellow. Monica studied abroad in Dakar, Senegal for a semester in 2010, where she wrote 85 poems, struggled to speak Wolof, and decided to never join the Peace Corps.