DeKALB – Students on campus have job opportunities within and around NIU or side hustles run by them, including braiding hair and cooking.
NIU students can use Huskies Get hired to find a job on or near campus, but might not find a job that works with their class schedule.
“I haven’t gotten a job on campus because I don’t have time,” said Sam Garcia, a first-year theater studies major. “I am a full time student taking 18 credit hours of classes, and most of the jobs available don’t fit with my class schedule, so I just don’t work. I am also participating in productions with my major, so there are just not enough hours in the day.”
DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats and other online delivery services allow students to work their own hours.
Students also run their own businesses across campus which range from hairstylists to selling different cultural foods.
To promote their businesses, students post stories on Snapchat or create Instagram accounts.
Stunta Styles and QuA’Ys Kook’IN are two businesses.
“I am creating so many flyers a week you do not even know,” said Binkk StuntA, a sophomore business major and owner of Binkk’s hair. “I have my own braid, weaves, and, in general, Black student hair business I run out of my dorm. This month, I am actually having a special March Madness braid and locs special.”
QuA’Ys Kook’IN posts were promoted on NIU’s 2026 Snapchat story creating chicken jerk alfredo to be served to paying students.
Social media is the main method of communication for student small businesses. Some post on the NIU graduate-year-specific Snapchat stories, i.e. NIU 2027, NIU 2026, NIU 2025, etc. Other small businesses have instagram accounts for customers.
“There are so many ads on the NIU stories you have to look at,” said Nakieta Urban, a junior early childhood education major. “I don’t often look at social media, but when I do, there are so many businesses I am always interested in seeing what they are about.”
Students can find out more about these small businesses by looking at public NIU social medias and viewing flyers posted in buildings around campus.
