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Show Here’s how onecoupleraisedtheir children—all five of them—tolove learning and graduate from Harvard, An American — Success Sto BY | a 2 eeee, LENA CHAVEZ HAS everyreasonto be proud of her achievements. |, Spanish ancesters settled most 300 years ago. Rose, 62,7 the daughter of immigrants from Last year, the Albuquer- Mexico and Spain, spoke no ~ English until she went to school. Both are just high schoolgraduates. Yet Ray,a technical illustrator, and Rose,a formertranscriber of court records who's nowan office administrator, were able to anchor their fam- almost seemsto have been herdestiny: She's the fifth Chavez sibling to graduate from Harvard, which rejects 10 applicants for everyoneit accepts. Howdid this family achieve such a feat? The answer,in part, is obvious: The Chavez children—Marty, Rick, Tom, Andrea and Elena, aged 38 to 23—are | bright and hardworking. But, as a visit totheirtidy, singlestory childhood homereveals.they also had an advantageno other Harvard applicants had: their parents. Ray and Rose Chavez. “We understood thateducation could makelife better,” says Ray. So, he and his wife devoted themselves to giving their growing familya “Tt started with Marty,” Rose says of her oldest child. “He was just so smart.” R. Martin Ch4vez earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and 2 master’s , B in computer science ? from Harvard and a G Ph.D.in medicalinformation sciences from Stanford. Today, he is the CEO of Pied que, N.M.. native graduated with honors from Harvard, the oldest and | one of the most competitive colleges inthe nation. “SometimesI still can't believe it happened,” she says. By reaching a goal she'dsetfor her- self long ago, Elenaalso fulfilled what | first-rate education. Ray Chévez, 68, had grown up “over the mountain” outside Albuquerque, where his ily solidly in the middle class. P a5 > 4 ' 4 Ee es , A tamily attain, a company that develops software for WallStreet. The Chivezes remember that, as a toddler, Marty's greatest intellectual as set was an unquenchable curiosity. The Top: Elena (c), last of the five Chavez ee to eeate from Harvard, is flanked in June 2001 by her parent: Ray and Rose, and her siblings(1-r) hades, (Class of 293), Rickeen, Tom (1990) and Marty (1985). Andrea and Tom are shown here at thelr own graduatione from Harvard PAGE 4 + JUNE 30, 2002 « PARADE MAGAZINE |
