ORH-006-0015

Gomez, Adrielys

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Adrielys Gómez is an investment associate with the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. A 1.5 generation Puerto Rican, Gómez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico on Feburary 28, 2000, and lived in Guaynabo for the first few years of her life. At 8 years old, Gómez moved to New Haven with her parents, younger brother, aunt, uncle, and three cousins. They moved to the Hill neighborhood, where Gómez's paternal grandmother was already living. Aside from a brief, six-month stint in Nashville during middle school, Gómez remained in New Haven, graduating from the Engineering and Science University Magnet School in 2018. She then attended the University of New Haven, where she graduated in May 2021 with a degree in Economics, before beginning work at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in August 2021. Gómez also received her MBA in Financial Analysis from the University of New Haven in 2023.

Gómez touches on themes of community building, biculturality, and personal identity formation in her oral history interview. Gómez speaks to being from both the archipelago of Puerto Rico and the mainland United States, and the challenges she encountered upon arrival, such as teaching herself English in light of a lack of access to bilingual education/English language learning instruction, as well as experiencing gendered burdens of labor as the eldest daughter in her family. Gómez also emphasizes the importance of the community she built with other peers of Color in high school and college. This manifested in her introduction and conversion to the Muslim faith, as well as founding the University of New Haven's chapter of the Muslim Students Association during her time as an undergraduate and graduate student. Gómez also discusses the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone and taking risks in pursuit of discovering who you are, as well as pride in the adaptability and resilience of Puerto Ricans throughout the diaspora.

Amanda Rivera