From Survival to Nourishment: Meet Denisse

There are moments when a person’s life quietly changes direction.

For Denisse, that moment happened during a high school internship at Kaiser Permanente. Standing inside a hospital, she saw firsthand the realities of health disparities and food insecurity. Instead of accepting those inequities as inevitable, she recognized something powerful: her own lived experience gave her an understanding that no textbook ever could.

Today, Denisse is a first-generation master’s student studying Public Health with a concentration in Food, Nutrition, and Population Health. She dreams of becoming a Latina Registered Dietitian who helps communities reconnect with healthy, culturally meaningful food while advocating for more equitable health systems.

Her story reminds us that foster care did not define her future, it sharpened the perspective she now uses to change it.

 

Beyond the File Q&A

How do you describe yourself beyond the foster care system?

Beyond foster care, I see myself as a first-generation master’s student pursuing Public Health with a focus on Food, Nutrition, and Population Health. I believe everyone deserves access to healthy, locally grown food while honoring their cultural traditions.

I hope to become a Latina Registered Dietitian who inspires others to improve their well-being through nutritious, plant-based foods. Outside of school, I find peace hiking through Yosemite and South Lake Tahoe. Nature reminds me that our health and environment are deeply connected, and I hope to carry that perspective into the communities I serve.

 

What’s a moment that shaped how you see yourself today?

During my internship at Kaiser Permanente, I realized I didn’t want to simply witness health disparities, I wanted to change them.

Watching a food recovery program operate inside the hospital helped me understand that surviving homelessness and foster care wasn’t simply part of my past. It gave me a perspective that couldn’t be taught in a classroom.

That was the day I stopped seeing myself only as a foster youth and began seeing myself as a public health advocate.

When did you realize you were becoming someone your younger self needed?

One day I looked around my home, my safe little casita, with my cats sleeping in the sun and my husband nearby.

I realized that little Denisse once wondered if she would ever have a permanent roof over her head or a family of her own.

Today, I have become the woman she needed to know was possible. I understand the policies that affect vulnerable communities because I lived them. I can look at another foster youth and honestly say, “I know the road is difficult, but look where it can lead.”

What did you have to unlearn to survive and what are you reclaiming now?

Growing up, I learned to believe I was a burden.

Abuse, instability, and foster care taught me to stay invisible, expect scarcity, and believe my needs inconvenienced everyone around me.

Now I’m reclaiming something very different.

I’m reclaiming my voice by advocating for better policies. I’m reclaiming my relationship with food through healing instead of survival. Most importantly, I’m reclaiming ownership of my own story.

The abuse and instability no longer define who I am. Today, I am the author of that story.

 

What does success mean to you?

Success isn’t defined by degrees or prestigious universities, although I’m proud of those accomplishments.

Success is walking through the door of my home and feeling safe.

It’s preparing to become the kind of parent my younger self needed.

It’s using my education to improve nutrition systems and maternal health for communities like mine.

It’s having enough peace left over to love my family, my community, and myself.

Success means I’m no longer running from my past—I’m running toward a future I intentionally built.

What would you want a younger Latina in foster care to know?

Your current reality does not get the final say over who you become.

The survival skills you’re developing today, your resilience, your awareness, your strength will someday become your leadership.

You are not a burden. Your culture, your language, and your experiences are not obstacles. They are gifts the world needs.

One day you’ll become the person you desperately needed when you were fourteen.

Keep learning. Keep believing.

You are not just a foster youth.

You are a future leader.

How would you like to be remembered?

As someone who transformed lived experience into advocacy and used her story to build healthier, more equitable communities.