| Denisse was born in Lima, Peru and subsequently moved to Florida at the age of 11, which explains her love of Peruvian food, warm sunny beaches, and mid-afternoon thunderstorms. From a very young age, she was captivated by foreign languages and cultures and thus chose to double-major in International Studies and French at the University of Miami. After college, she moved to Boston, where she taught English to immigrants, completed a Masters degree in Public Health at Boston University, worked at a refugee health organization, and conducted research around reproductive health issues affecting immigrant and underserved women. This will be Denisse’s first year as a law student at Penn and as Director of La Casa Hispanica. During her spare time, she plans to share her culture and language with everyone at Gregory, take long walks and explore Philly, continue looking for excuses to learn a new language, and work on her repertoire of Peruvian cuisine. Also joining Gregory is her husband, Andy Dykstra, who will be finishing up his PhD from MIT remotely and although he speaks only a little Spanish, he’s looking forward to learning and does speak Ohm’s Law and The Nernst Equation, languages in which Denisse is completely illiterate.
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