Meet Global Studies alum Jake Gill

Jake Gill’s dream was to be a Chinese teacher. It came true, but not quite in the way he expected.

Gill is a native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He graduated from high school in 2003, but wasn’t quite ready for college. Instead, he and a friend founded their own car business. It took a lot of hard work, and even some international travel – in a search for a manufacturing facility, Gill even went to live in Indonesia for a month. He picked up the language surprisingly quickly.

“It was in that moment that I realized I wasn’t an idiot and I could learn a foreign language,” he recalled. “I thought I was a linguistic failure in high school. Turns out that in order to learn a language, you have to speak it with people.”

When the business went under, Gill decided to get his degree. UWM was an easy choice; it was close, both of his parents were alumni, and Gill had several friends who were going through the university’s Chinese and Japanese programs. Those languages in particular called to him.

Gill jumped a few majors before settling on Global Studies, a program that allowed him to both study language – he picked Chinese – and study abroad, once in Taiwan and once in Beijing. It was at UWM that his dream to be a Chinese teacher was born. He indulged it by serving as a teacher at a local weekend school catering to the children of Taiwanese parents.

He also received a Fulbright Scholarship through the Associated Colleges of China that allowed him to participate in a six-week teacher training course, entirely in Chinese.

“While I was there, I met this guy, Ben, and he was a writer for Skritter. I was blogging on my own and having fun, and he recommended me to Skritter,” Gill said. “I got

an email from the guys who ran Skritter saying, ‘Hey, you want to write for us?’ I thought that was a perfect fit for making a couple of extra bucks while I was in school, so I started writing for them in 2011.”

He didn’t stop there; over the next few years, Gill began doing app testing and institutional sales for Skritter as well.

Gill graduated from UWM in 2011 and started coursework towards a Master’s degree. A few years into his studies, the founders of Skritter wanted to make the transition out of their company to pursue other projects. They hired Gill as Skritter’s new director.

“I was a little bummed, because I really, really wanted to be a Chinese teacher. For a week, I was kind of sad. But at some point, (I realized) I still get to teach in some way because of what Skritter does,” Gill said.

Like all great heads of tech companies, Gill joked, he dropped out of his Master’s studies to handle the running of Skritter. He oversaw every area except for programming, and had big ideas to move the company in exciting new directions. But to do that, he needed a little more ownership.

I made a push and and I became the CEO,” he said. “So, blogger to CEO in about seven years.”

He credits UWM as the foundation of his success. Faculty members like Lixin Cai nurtured both his business sense and his language skills. One lecturer in particular, Andrew Olson, was a non-native Chinese speaker and demonstrated that non-native speakers like Gill could be good at Chinese.

“Early on, I had a really nice support structure at UWM,” Gill said. “UWM was such an integral part in every opportunity that I’ve had since enrolling.”

By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science