Jhoselyn Diaz found everything she needed to follow her dreams at WCSU
DANBURY, Connecticut — Dover, New York, resident Jhoselyn Diaz has always loved art and dreamt of one day becoming a professional artist. Originally focused on attending an art school in Boston, Diaz had to shift her plans when the global pandemic arrived — and the outcome couldn’t make her happier.
“I really wanted to attend MassArt and I loved Boston,” Diaz explained. “I applied, was accepted and got a good offer … and then the pandemic hit. My cousin was a student at Western Connecticut State University and told me it’s a good school and not expensive, and that I should check it out. I applied, enrolled and ended up loving it here.”
Immersed in her studies as a graphic design major, Diaz started to sense that “something was missing.” She loved her classes and still loved art, “but I realized it was more like a hobby,” she said. “I felt that there might be a higher calling, and started investigating all the other majors that WCSU offered.”
Her research led Diaz to look closely at WCSU’s Division of Justice and Law Administration. She met with the dean and asked questions, and then took the information she gathered and asked her parents their thoughts. Neither had attended college themselves, but they listened to the results of her research and her reasons for wanting to change majors, and were fully supportive.
Diaz switched programs at the beginning of the spring semester of her freshman year and became a Legal Studies major with the goal of attending law school after graduation. Now entering her senior year, she is vice president of the university’s Justice & Law Society, and in that role works to bring representatives from law schools to campus to explain the application process to her peers.
“The goal is to try to make students comfortable with the process,” she said. “The law school representatives serve as future contacts for guidance and advice when WCSU graduates want to apply. We also bring in WCSU alumni who are lawyers to talk to students and share their own career stories, which don’t always necessarily fit the conventional model people assume lawyers will follow.”
In addition to her leadership in the JLA Society, Diaz is a member of the National Honors Society and WCSU Beyond Borders, a campus club that serves to inform undocumented students about everything they need to know to succeed — from DACA laws to how to obtain private scholarships to how to embark on a career.
