The Class of 2027: Madison Alvarez

Earlier this fall, The East Hampton Star embarked on a project to spend time in a kindergarten classroom at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, chronicling how the year takes shape with personalities and interests just beginning to form. Though the idea was initially approved, the district withdrew its cooperation shortly after the publication of the first installment, citing concerns about privacy, security, and the potential for distraction.

Though classroom access is no longer permitted, the intent of the series remains the same. Over the coming months, five families from an array of backgrounds will be profiled to help illustrate the changing face of East Hampton from the vantage point of its youngest residents.

Madison Alvarez, 5, is one of them.

Antonia Alvarez proudly boasts of a daughter with big dreams for her future. Madison has her sights set on becoming a doctor — specifically, a pediatrician.

“I want her to succeed, to become somebody,” said Ms. Alvarez during a conversation last week at the East Hampton Library. “She’s already saying she wants to be a doctor. I want to help her accomplish what she wants in life.”

Ms. Alvarez, 37, and her husband, Fernando Alvarez, 34, relocated from Seattle to East Hampton in August. The prospect of well-paid, year-round work, in addition to the close proximity of a good public school system and a safe community in which to raise their children, prompted the cross-country move. Their younger son, Isaac, is 2.

Mr. Alvarez works as the property manager of a large East Hampton estate. His father has tended to the same property for the past seven years. The family now occupies a two-bedroom, three-bathroom guesthouse on its grounds. Ms. Alvarez is a stay-at-home mother.

Madison is one of 18 children enrolled in Kristen Tulp’s kindergarten class at John Marshall. Over the past few decades, the school district, like others all across the nation, has undergone a sea change, from having a vast majority of white students to one where Spanish is increasingly the primary language spoken at home. According to the school’s recently released 2012-13 state-issued report card, the John Marshall enrollment is 51 percent Latino, 40 percent white, 5 percent black, 2 percent Asian, and 2 percent multiracial. Among its 621 students, more than one-third are classified “economically disadvantaged.”

Both Alvarezes are children of recent immigrants. Mr. Alvarez moved from Ecuador to Brooklyn at the age 17 with his parents and brother, speaking not a word of English, and promptly began classes at Newcomers High School in Long Island City, Queens, which has a student body from dozens of countries. His parents both worked at an electronics company in Manhattan, repairing VCRs.

He graduated from Newcomers and promptly enlisted in the U.S. Navy, eventually serving for eight years including, after 9/11, two deployments in the Persian Gulf. Under the post-9/11 G.I. Bill, he enrolled in online courses at American InterContinental University and earned an associate’s degree in business administration in 2008.

Ms. Alvarez was born in Long Beach, Calif., the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her father drove a big-rig truck, and her mother stayed home, looking after the couple’s seven children. After high school, Ms. Alvarez took a nine-month certification course in medical assisting at Skadron College in nearby San Bernardino.

The couple met in 1998 in an AOL Spanish-speaking chat group and began a long-distance courtship. They married in July 2001 in Moreno Valley, Calif.

In recent years, the family has moved from California to New Jersey to Washington State — wherever Mr. Alvarez’s contracting jobs took them. While in the Navy, he had been trained as an aircraft mechanic, and he continued repairing commercial and military aircraft as a private contractor afterward.

After his eight years of active service, Mr. Alvarez joined the Navy Reserve, serving for another four years. The couple put off having children until his military career was over. “I didn’t want to have kids while I was in the military,” he said. “I didn’t want to go away and come back and miss their birthdays. Two deployments was enough.”

Though both spoke Spanish growing up, they have raised their children in a predominantly English-speaking home. Madison can understand some Spanish, but not enough to have a conversation. 

Slowly, the family is settling in, readjusting to a new climate and readying for snow.

“We’re planning to stay here permanently,” said Mr. Alvarez, who was helping Isaac to complete a puzzle. “That was always our goal, that once school started, we would find a permanent place.”

They see education as the children’s path to upward mobility.

“I want better for her than the life that I had,” said Ms. Alvarez. “Where you live makes a big difference. I grew up in a crazier neighborhood. That’s why I like it here for them. It’s a different environment.”

So far, since starting kindergarten, Madison has been sick a few times and has picked up a few bad habits from her classmates. She’s also acquired a pair of purple-framed eyeglasses. Her parents found out she needed glasses during a routine doctor’s appointment before the start of school. Ham and cheese sandwiches are a favorite, and Grace, one of her classmates, is her best friend.

Ms. Alvarez drives Madison to school each morning and volunteers in her classroom two mornings a week. In the evenings she sometimes gives her daughter extra assignments, hoping to challenge her further.

A quick learner, Madison knew her letters, numbers, colors, and how to add and subtract long before she started kindergarten. At night, she pores through her mother’s old medical textbooks, memorizing the names of different bones and muscles.

“I also wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up, but I didn’t know if I could,” said Ms. Alvarez. “I wish I had gotten more of a push from my parents. I want Madison to succeed, and I want to help her get there.”