Huskie Guide

Jocelyn Campos Diaz’s Debt-free Journey Meant Believing in Herself

Jocelyn Campos Diaz will never forget when she heard the life-changing news.

That moment was four months in the making, beginning with her admission to NIU in the fall of 2020 and its invitation to apply for a competitive scholarship.

“Should I?” she wondered. Then – yes. Yes, she would.

“I remember being upstairs in my room filling out the application, and I was rereading my answers, and I was like, ‘I don’t think this is going to happen, so I’m turning it in just to turn it in,’ ”Campos Diaz says. “But then I was like, ‘No. I am worthy. I worked really hard throughout high school.’ ”

Her first interview – via Zoom during COVID in spring 2021 – went well, she thought. And she was right. NIU scheduled a second online call for the end of February.

Campos Diaz sat alone in her family’s kitchen in Round Lake, mentally preparing herself for another round of questions.

Unnecessarily, it turned out. She’d already scored. The scholarship was hers. The appointment was, in reality, an announcement

“I didn’t even know what to say. I was just really grateful, and I felt blessed to have the opportunity,” she says, recalling the thrill of telling her parents. “Even now, I still get emotional thinking about how that felt.”

Her scholarship laid the foundation for earning her college degree without having to take out any student loans.

Beginning as a business major, Campos Diaz remained on that path for two years.

Midway through that time, however, she decided her true passions lay in fitness and movement. Meanwhile, thanks to involvement with the student-led Tumbao Latin Dance Group on campus, where she was helping to choreograph and leading as a director, the former high school cheerleader realized how much she loved teaching.

Putting those discoveries together prompted a new major – Physical Education – while student-teaching in Somonauk and Sycamore schools confirmed her choice to switch.

“It has really showed me that this is my field. I get excited to go, every single day – especially in P.E. It’s something new every day, and these kids bring different energy every single day,” she says. “I really get excited to be able to teach lifelong skills along with the traditional P.E.”

Graduating with no loans to pay off is also the result of occasional freelance gigs choreographing quinceañeras.

“That’s a side hustle I pick up whenever there’s a chance to choregraph and connect to my cultural roots,” she says. “I just let them know, ‘If you need any help, let me know.’ ”

Now, with her parents feeling proud of their oldest daughter and the example set for her younger brother and sister, and with bright tomorrows likely to include a master’s and doctorate, Campos Diaz offers words of wisdom to prospective Huskies.

“Being a first-generation student, you think about college when you’re little. You know that’s your ultimate goal,” she says, “and it was important to me that I found resources so that not only could I learn but that I could help others as well.”

And, she says, practice confidence.

“As cliché as it sounds, don’t limit yourself. Don’t think that a dream is too big, because it’s not. It never is,” she says. “Even if you didn’t have the best grades in high school, that does not determine the rest of your future. You can continue building. There’s always room for change. There’s always room for growth.”

“As cliché as it sounds, don’t limit yourself. Don’t think that a dream is too big, because it’s not.”

Jocelyn Campos Diaz, Physical education