To Diaz, Hispanic Heritage Month is “an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the Latino community in the United States, across many professions.” These include role models, such as his parents, “who left everything in Mexico so that my siblings and I could have the opportunities they did not have,” and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “another first-generation law student from the Bronx, New York, like me!”
As a DePaul Law 1L, he was a First Generation Law Student Organization representative and a summer legal intern with Children’s Legal Center in Chicago, and after a successful social media campaign, he was elected central regional director of the National Latino/a Law Student Association (NLLSA) during its March 2021 national conference. He considers this a particular point of pride, noting: “I am the first DePaul law student to be elected to the NLLSA executive board, and I hope I am not the last.”
As president, one of his main goals is to follow in the footsteps of previous LLSA presidents and execute a great Illinois LLSA Forum featuring Latinx attorneys from a variety of fields. The annual Forum works to increase the Latinx presence in the legal community, and as Diaz explains, “the LLSA Forum is special to me; I attended the event before I started law school. It was my first networking event in Chicago, and I met law students who would become great friends and mentors. As [LLSA] president, I hope other pre-law students get the same experience I had.”
https://law.depaul.edu/about/news/Pages/Student-profile-jesus-diaz.aspx