I am a Spanish teacher, a soccer coach, and I am the Dean of Multicultural Affairs: three different positions rolled into one.
Mr. Kelvin Martinez (Photo: Mr. John Spear)
In the classroom, my students learn a language without fear. With regards to soccer, it’s the experience I bring from building teams, creating team unity, and maximizing the best that a student has to offer. I believe for them to achieve they need to perform at their highest potential. In terms of multicultural affairs, I want to bring the community together to celebrate what is different but also looking at things that are common, and being a presence and a model campus for those things.
A couple of things brought me here. The beginning of a brand new soccer program and also starting the office of multicultural affairs. Both programs did not exist at Northwood last year and I’m hoping to make both of them awesome.
I have three babies. I have a newborn, a three-year-old, and a two-year-old. I’m always interested in finding ways to engage them. It changes every single day. It could be that we wake up on a Saturday morning and I take them out on a canoe or go on a hike. We read books in Portuguese, or in my native language Garifuna, my tribal language which I am teaching my children. I play drums, I have jembes and traditional drums. I have five of them with me.
I love Northwood. I think it’s a very unique place, with faculty who I consider selfless. People in boarding schools work hard. They are required to do a lot. I have seen groups of faculty who work hard, but rarely do you see a group of faculty this passionate about the school, and I’ve worked in a number of independent schools.
The students are very passionate about what they do. There is almost a sense of purpose on the campus and I love that. Lake Placid, with the water and the mountains, is a gorgeous place. My family loves it. My kids are comfortable here which is very important to me.
Before I came here I was at a boarding school in Boston. I was a Spanish teacher and also I was in charge of building the varsity soccer program there. I served as a head dorm parent, an advisor, pretty much everything a faculty could do at a boarding school. It’s very similar to what I do here. I was also the coordinator of community life, which is similar to what we call multicultural affairs here at Northwood.
As told to Kevin Quinn ‘19
