Video interview with Marck Dorvil coming soon. Check back shortly to watch this exclusive conversation.
Marck Dorvil’s journey from a Miami native to a payments and product management executive in Atlanta exemplifies the power of vision combined with community collaboration. Armed with both undergraduate and MBA degrees from Florida A&M University, earned Summa Cum Laude and with Honors, Dorvil has built a career in financial services while maintaining a principled approach to balance. His commitment to personal fitness, love for global travel with his wife Raschelle, and dedication to giving back led him to create what would become one of Atlanta’s most impactful HBCU community events. Eighteen years ago, Dorvil’s simple fundraising idea for his FAMU Atlanta chapter evolved into the HBCU Alumni 5K Run/Walk, an annual tradition that has raised scholarship funds for thousands of students while building a thriving fitness community among HBCU alumni.
You were the original mind behind the HBCU Alumni 5K Run/Walk. What inspired you to pitch this idea?
Many years ago, I was the fundraising chair for the FAMU Atlanta chapter, and I was in charge with coming up with several different ideas of making money. At the time I was a real avid runner, I still run today, but I was participating in a lot of races back then, and I noticed that there wasn’t really any races that were catered towards our community.
I wanted to do something that was different, something that gave us the ability to get together and not just go drinking, but get together and do something that was healthy, and created more of a sense of community within our folks. This is where the idea spawned. I would say that although I thought of the initial idea, it takes a village, and this would not have gotten anywhere where it is today without the wonderful participation of the HBCU Atlanta Alumni Alliance with Dan Ford and several other folks, Condra Magee I’ll mention, lots of great folks that really embraced this idea and helped me elevate it to where it is today.
I was the original race director, and I did it for the first 10 years of this event. It was grueling, it was fun, though, and created a lot of great memories. So I wasn’t only the original brainchild of it, I was also the original race director of it as well.
This event has helped raise scholarships for thousands of HBCU students over 18 years. What does that growth mean to you?
As I think back, I never would have imagined that it would have grown to the scale that it has, but I’m very proud. I consider it a legacy thing that I’ve done with my short time on this planet to help others. As I think about what I value, I value bringing folks together. I value health. I value different things that will elevate and make people stretch and get out of their comfort zone.
This really gave me that opportunity to do that. I also value education greatly. Again, one of the biggest focuses for me was to raise scholarship dollars. Throughout my career, as I’ve worked for different organizations, I’ve pitched this, and I’ve been able to solicit sponsorship in various formats. This really gave me the opportunity to help build a community of runners. Folks that had approached me at one point during my time as the race director, that this is the first time they’ve ever run. They were very intimidated at first, not knowing what to do and how to get engaged, but because we were more of a community and more of a family, and people saw other people that looked like them, it became a lot more comfortable.
How has your FAMU education shaped your values around giving back and creating impact?
I did graduate from the illustrious Florida A&M University, and I think the education and the experience that I had really helped me build and grow from a character perspective as I am today. As I think back about all of the community things that I used to do when I was there, all of the engagements that I had while I was at the University, and then going into my own professional and personal life, I always think about what is it that I can do to give back?
In my mind, it’s paying it forward. FAMU really taught me that because we’re a collective of folks that come from very different backgrounds. Some folks had a lot given to them coming through, and there were a lot of folks that didn’t. But we all still came together, and we thought about what it meant to work together collectively? And that’s what I think the HBCU Alumni Alliance really does, they think about “okay, we’re better together.” How do we bring this whole and make sure that we can collectively bring things forward? And I think the HBCU Run/Walk is a perfect example of that.
Health awareness is a major part of the event. How does this align with your personal lifestyle?
I am a big advocate of health, I think health is wealth. My entire life spans around maintaining that balance. When I travel, I make sure I know where there’s a gym. I make sure I’m up early in the morning to hit the gym, whether I’m tired or not. I try to eat healthy. I love home-cooked food.
I think that as we get older, I’m up there now, I need to make sure that I can maintain, because your muscles start to degrade, your bones start to degrade, and the best way that you can protect yourself—I always say your future self is going to thank you—is to basically take care of your health.
So if there’s anything that I can do to bring that awareness, I’m all for it. People are often asking me, and I’ve given countless advice. Some people say I should be a personal trainer, but that’s not my calling. My calling is more to help others. But yeah, I’m really big on the health aspect of it, the personal training aspect of it as well.
What advice do you give people about motivation versus discipline?
One piece of advice that I would give you is, be around people who you admire and want to be like, because it makes everything a lot easier. So if you want to work out, you want to eat well, look at who you’re with and who you’re around, and see if they’re emulating things that you’re looking to do as well. A lot of people say, “How do I get motivated? I need motivation,” and it’s nothing to do with motivation, because when you’re motivated, you can do just about anything. But how often can you just turn on motivation? It’s all about discipline.
Discipline is the key to success, because whether you’re motivated or not, discipline is what gets you through, and that’s how I really live my life. I tell people that all the time, it’s great to be motivated, it’s great to be excited about something. But how often do we just jump into something that’s really hard? So I think that’s a great way to think about it, and the only other piece of advice that I’ll offer is choose your hard.
You either can work out hard now for an easier life later, or you can do things easy now for a harder life later. So choose your hard, either way, that’s going to be something that’s hard.
How important is it for professionals to protect their well-being while serving others?
It is absolutely important, and the older you get, the more you’re gonna realize how time is your most valuable resource, and that’s what you’re trading, and the older you get, the more expensive it becomes. You need to think about, is it really worth my time? Do I need to be grinding at this point for something that is really eating up my time where I think I could be doing something that’s a lot more productive or beneficial? Can I outsource something?
Do I really have to commit to this versus maybe taking a break and being recharged? There’s nothing wrong with working hard, but I always say life is a marathon and not a sprint, and if you sprint and continue to sprint, you’re going to die out. So you have to think about what’s the long game? What’s the long term?
Sure, it’s okay to sprint for a short period, but you have to take a step back, and you have to recharge. As you mentioned, I love to travel. My wife and I just came back from Japan, and we loved it. We’ve been to places like Greece, Thailand. Last year we went to South Africa. So we love to travel. We’ve been to all parts of Europe.
So we think it’s great for us to just take that step back and to recharge and make sure that we’re not waiting to retirement for us to experience life.
Can you share a memorable moment from the 5K events that reminded you why this work matters?
As I mentioned earlier, I think one of the things that really stuck with me is people coming up to me and saying that they never ran a race before, that they were very intimidated for even participating, and that this was something that really kicked off their journey to becoming fit and really focusing on health.
So I really take that personally because it makes me feel like there’s actual impact, and that people are really taking this to heart. I think seeing some of the scholarship recipients receive scholarship dollars, I think that’s fantastic, and hearing some of their stories, I think it’s great.
But I’ll tell you a funny story that I remember. I think it was the first year that we did the HBCU Run/Walk, I decided that I was not only going to be the race director, I was also going to participate. So I ran the race, not realizing everything that was involved in being the race director and coordinating, and all that type of stuff.
I would say that that was the last year that I did that because there was so much happening, so much going on. By the time I crossed the finish line, people were “Marck, where were you? There was this, there was that, there was this.” So it was actually a very funny experience, because I realized I can’t do both, but it was fun running.
What do you hope people take away from the full day experience?
This is one of the best ways to get together and unite with your fellow alum, your fellow HBCU folks. You can potentially find your husband or wife there. It’s really fun. You could bring your kids out. It’s a great family affair. I think that there’s a lot of things that are happening that cater to all different groups, all different ages. It’s really fun. It’s not just a race, it really is a community. It’s really bringing together all aspects of our community and culminating around a race. But there’s so much to do, and it’s so fun and engaging.
What advice would you give someone with an idea that could become a movement?
I would say work with some folks that you trust, and reach out to individuals that might be able to help you. Don’t try to go it alone. As I mentioned, Dan Ford has been a fantastic partner. I worked with Condra Magee when we first started thinking about this. So they were great resources to talk to, to bounce ideas off of, to really see how we could expand and grow this. So if you have an idea, really see if there’s folks that can help you, that you trust, that can help you grow this opportunity, but don’t just leave it. If you got a great idea, the worst thing you could do is to not bring it to fruition.
How can people participate in the race or get involved?
You should be able to go to the website to find more information about the race and other things that the Alliance does. The Alliance really has several events and keeps up to speed and up to date with what’s going on in the community. So the race is one aspect of it. They’re always looking for volunteers, looking for donors. But if you’re interested in specifically the race, you should be able to go to that website to find more information.
I’m on LinkedIn. And if anybody really wants to reach out to me, they can email me at [email protected], and if there’s anything I can do to help them, I’ll see if I can.
