Day: January 20, 2019

Hello! My name is Gianni Arroyo but I prefer going by Gia. I was born in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. My family moved from Puerto Rico to Miami after my dad graduated from Antillian Adventist University.

Growing up a pastor’s kid I had to deal with moving around quite a
few times. Adjusting to new environments was difficult for me. So, at an early age, I found ways to cope with the changes through writing.

This opened a new world for me. Being a Seventh-day Adventist is a big part of my life. So much so that I’ve lost count of how many generations my family has been a part of the denomination.

I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in our church, especially as a pastor’s kid.

Diversity within our church is a topic that I find very interesting and important.
It is critical to our survival as a denomination.

I believe in the message of our church and would love to see us flourish.

To ask who I am, one would get an answer that is complex, yet straight forward. My first name is simple, Hannah. My last name, if spelled correctly, comes with an apostrophe…D’Avanzo.

I am a child of two parents who are from different races and have very different cultural practices. My mother is Filipino and my father is Italian. In our home, strong Asian values prevailed yet I only understood and spoke the language native to my father. For that reason, I often felt that I should choose which race I would be more a part of than the other. In reality, I am not just one or the other.

Today, as I expand my knowledge of research and race, I realize my background does not dene me, but is an accessory of who I am.
I do not have to choose one race because one box can’t be as encompassing as I am. I am diverse, and diversity is beautiful. Having said that, I am very excited to be a part of Interactive Journalism, where we will closely explore and write about diversity, race and unity within the Adventist church. I hope you will follow our posts and enjoy our discoveries on investigating diversity.