“I see myself as a connector—I like to find things that inspire me and share them.” For Gloria Gyakari ’17, that inspiration often starts with music. Whether she’s listening to 3-step, Afrobeat, deep house, or highlife, she’s drawn to the immersive beats and the sense of positivity and creativity they spark. As a DJ, she turns that energy outward. “There is no good event without good music,” she said. “And I love putting people on to good tracks.”
That willingness to explore what excites her and share it boldly was nurtured early on. A native of the Bronx, New York, Gyakari is the daughter of Ghanaian parents who emphasized education from an early age. “Just find your way and be good at it,” she recalled them saying.
With that encouragement at her back, Gyakari had her sights set on Syracuse University after visiting friends from high school. “I loved everything about it, from the campus to the color orange,” she said. She began at the New York City College of Technology and transferred into the iSchool her sophomore year. Once there, she quickly immersed herself in campus life, finding community in the African Student Union, One World Dance, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and the business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi (AKP). Programs such as HEOP and CSTEP provided critical financial and academic support. “Being in the iSchool was essential to who I am today—my growth, my connections, my career,” she said. The professional organizations, in particular, helped her build the communication skills she would later rely on in the corporate world.
At the iSchool, Gyakari collected the stepping stones of her career, exploring interests in web design, project management, and user experience (UX) design. She also discovered her love for travel when she took her first flight as an adult to California, followed by others to Australia and Asia for educational programs. Through NSBE, she interned with Delta Airlines. To this day, she is often on the go. “Every time someone reaches out to me, they like, ‘Hey, what planet are you on?’” she laughed.
After graduation, Gyakari continued to expand her horizons by moving to Texas and joining Dell, where she worked in areas from project management to performance engineering. “The iSchool prepared me to be flexible and move onto different teams,” she said. With management’s support, she pursued a master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Michigan while working full-time. She completed it in 2021 alongside a certificate in Urban Informatics.
That degree marked the start of her career in UX research. “It’s always interesting to watch people use technology,” she said. “I get to interview folks and get in their mind a little bit, then watch what they do.” Her path led from Dell to Mozilla and then to Hilton. Along the way, she realized UX research could apply across industries—and felt ready to use her expertise as a consultant through Perficient, drawing on skills she first practiced through an iSchool consulting program with EY.
Gyakari has also poured her entrepreneurial energy into Amp Spot, a DJ and Event-Curation platform she co-founded in 2021 with AKP fraternity brother Dominic Samuels. Designed as infrastructure for the DJ economy, the startup connects event planners, venues, and promoters with high-quality DJs. She envisions expanding it into a broader gig-economy platform for creatives, from photographers to videographers.
Reflecting on her journey to date, Gyakari said, “I’m proud of myself for taking steps outside of the norm. And I want to keep finding ways to use technology for the greater good of humanity.” For students following in her footsteps, her advice is simple: get involved and explore. “Let your interests be sparked,” she said. “And whatever you want to do, just do it. You really have nothing to lose.”
For more information on Gloria and how to support her, visit her startup website at https://www.ampspot.co/ and follow Amp Spot on social media @ampspot
Amp Spot is Live in the App Store and Play Store.