Here's a brief history of how Luisa traveled from East Germany to West Germany, California to Massachusetts, with a few pit stops along the way.;xNLx;;xNLx;Stories in Green are events in Luisa's life, collected from a variety of online sources and derived from a phone interview with Luisa.;xNLx;;xNLx;Stories in blue are world events that have had an impact on Luisa's life.;xNLx;;xNLx;Curated by Diane Chang.
Luisa Emmi Beck is born in Magdeburg, East Germany, to Jonny Beck and Katlen Ebert. Family and friends commonly call her by her middle name.
After three decades of separation, East Germany's communist leaders allowed the gates of the Wall to be opened.
Two year-old Emmi and her parents leave East Germany after the Berlin Wall falls. They eventually settle in the town of Neuss, near Dusseldorf. Her mother tries to find work as a physical therapist while her father stays home to take care of her. Luisa would spend several months of each year back in East Germany with her grandparents as her parents struggled to adjust to life in the West.
Emmi moves to southern California with mother Katlen, since divorced, and her stepfather. Having been taught Russian growing up, Katlen always dreamed of learning English. Emmi doesn't speak a word of English when they arrive.
The Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Sudanese government, claiming the government oppressed non-Arab Sudanese. The Arab Janjaweed militia, allegedly backed by the government, are accused of perpetrating genocide.
An earthquake with an epicenter off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, hits the Indian Ocean region. It is the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph, and caused a devastating tsunami that lead to the death of over 200,000 people.
Emmi works as a student manager and medical intern at Wesminster Clinic, a free community clinic that served the sizable population of undocumented immigrants in the Thousand Oaks area.
As president of the Thousand Oaks High School Women's Advocacy and Relief Fund, Emmi helps organize a fundraiser to raise awareness of the events in Darfur.
Emmi graduates from Thousand Oaks High School in Ventura County, CA with many awards and honors.
Emmi earns a BA in philosophy in three years.
Emmi participates in the Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme (TISES), a unique internship program to learn about the Tata Group's work with rural communities.
Luisa takes courses at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München in computer science, statistics and psychology. She decides to go by her first name when she arrives in Germany.
Luisa blogs as a production intern at the NPR show "On the Media."
Luisa works as a research assistant at UC Berkeley's School of Information. She built the website for Beyond Market Prices, an online resource on the uses of mobile phones to improve livelihoods in developing countries.
Luisa takes a job as a research assistant at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She works on the Youth and Media project, which examines how young people interact with the Internet, cell phones and video games. "Being around my brother and watching him use technology is very interesting to me," she says. "I'm trying to encourage him to learn the basics of programming, so that he's not reliant on technology that's just given to him."
Luisa and a friend are currently partnering with the Somerville Arts Council to build a map of public art in Somerville. They will organize an art scavenger hunt to take place in April.
Luisa meets fellow media-makers and hackers at the MIT Media Lab.
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