My name is Erica Schlaikjer, a Class of 2007 graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Ill., where I double-majored in journalism and international studies. I was born in Fairfax, Va., and subsequently moved around the world as the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer and aboriginal Taiwanese mother. I have lived in Guangzhou, China; Taipei, Taiwan; Beijing; Geneva; Hong Kong; and Germantown, Md., where I attended public high school. I am currently based in Chicago.
I have held several magazine internships at local, national and international publications, including The Chicago Reporter, Crain’s Chicago Business and National Geographic. I also served as editor-at-large for Abroad View magazine, a student-run, non-profit magazine about global education and study abroad.
In the fall of 2005, I withdrew from school for three months to live in Shanghai, China, where I interned at Shanghai Talk, an English-language city living magazine. I also pursued an independent research project, courtesy of the Medill-sponsored Eric Lund Global Research & Reporting Grant, focusing on China’s Internet youth culture. While working and living abroad, I traveled to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Beijing and Nanjing.
In February 2007, I was honored with a foundational scholarship from the Overseas Press Club, and I hope to pursue a career in international journalism.
Beginning in January 2008, I studied Mandarin for three months at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan, thanks to the Taiwan Ministry of Education’s Huayu Enrichment Scholarship for Chinese language training. I also worked as a freelance reporter for Taiwan Business TOPICS, a monthly magazine published by the American Chamber of Commerce. You can read about my experiences at makapahai.wordpress.com.
I am currently writing and reporting for the Focus section of Crain’s Chicago Business, a regional weekly business publication.
See my profile on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/eschlaikjer
Find me on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/people/Erica_Lee_Schlaikjer/539983000