globetrotter
Jessica Erickson, globetrotter and noted music enthusiast, is an American expat living in Berlin and building General Assembly’s second European campus.
Erickson was born in Minnesota to parents of Norwegian and Korean heritage (call her Korwegian). She studied International Relations and wrote for an underground indie music magazine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and after completing her bachelor’s degree moved to Seoul, South Korea to discover her mother’s old stomping grounds. While in Seoul, Erickson pursued her language and global studies at Ewha Womans University and became a champion of North Korean Human Rights through her NGO work.
On her down time, Erickson traveled throughout East Asia and this triggered her growing curiosity of global media, which led to a period of masters level studies in Media & Communications at the London School of Economics. Inspired by the late, BBC DJ John Peel, she formatted and hosted two student radio shows that included live interviews, in studio performances and specialty shows playing global, underground and mainstream music. With London being home, she traveled throughout Europe and felt a sense of transformation and spiritual growth.
While bridging the gap between old and new worlds, she began building friendships with a new generation of young entrepreneurs, artists and students around the globe. After graduation, Erickson moved back to the United States and set up shop in Brooklyn, New York. Jess worked for major and minor music labels but received a wake up call that the record industry was on its last legs. She moved on to pursue a position in the tech startup world and it was love at first sight.
Jess is now based in Berlin (for the long haul) and you can find her nerding out to all things tech while listening to the latest hip hop and house beats coming out of Europe. As General Assembly’s Berlin Producer, she has the opportunity to interact with some of the smartest entrepreneurs, hackers and designers on a daily basis. Aside from her work, she is also busy uniting women in tech through a group known as ‘Berlin Geekettes’. While she is not ‘teching’ she is ‘technoing’ by hosting a monthly radio show with Berlin’s only electronic music station TWEN FM. She hopes all of you will tune in, crack open a beer and enjoy the show.
