Carl Dorvil Profile

CONTACT: Adrian D. Parker The Parker Marketing Group [email protected] 866-999-TPMG

CARLCARLDORVILDORVIL

www.groupexcellence.org


PROFILEPROFILECarl Dorvil is President/CEO of Group Excellence, aDallas-based education services company withdivisions in Austin, Houston and Fort Worth andoperations ranging from private tutoring to collegepreparation workshops. Under the No Child LeftBehind Act, Group Excellence is one of the fewcompanies certified by the state of Texas to offer freetutoring for students in low-performing, economicallydisadvantaged areas.

The company’s mission is to motivate and inspirestudents to achieve excellence in academics throughmentoring relationships and tutoring programs.

Founded in 2004 while Dorvil was still in college,Dorvil shuttled students and tutors around in his carbetween classes. In just 5 years, Group Excellencehas grown to be the top-performing SupplementalEducational Service (SES) provider in the state. In the2008 - 2009 school year alone, the company served

roughly 5,000 students across the state. GroupExcellence consistently outperforms all othereducation services in student passing rates andattendance. In one Dallas middle school, math scoresshot up from 12 percent to 60%+ passing only 8months after activating the Group Excellenceprogram.

The difference is a unique emphasis on mentoring,combined with a specially-trained staff that helpsstudents aspire to unparalleled understanding ofacademic materials.

Still relentless, Dorvil seeks to grow the company’sstatewide presence and go national with the help of atalented management team. To support thisendeavor, he launched SureStudy.com, an interactivewebsite with artificial intelligence that tutorsstudents according to classroom curriculums.

ABOUT CARL DORVIL

June 24, 2008Dallas IndependentSchool District andDallas Achieves! awardGroup Excellence withtheir certificate ofappreciation for GE’sparticipation andcontribution in the“City Wide YouthMentoring Coalition.”

June 3, 2008The Texas EducationAgency and SchoolImprovementResource Centername Carl Dorvil,Group ExcellencePresident/CEO, tothe Texas SES TaskForce.

May 15, 2008Group Excellenceawards 2 seniors atSamuel High School$4,000 scholarships.

March 3, 2007Group Excellencewas presented thePinnacle Award foroutstanding work inthe community bythe Dallas CountyPeace OfficersAssociation.

NOTABLES



BIOGRAPHYBIOGRAPHYSuccess stories don’t always begin with an alien podcrashing in a cornfield in Kansas. My story begins inGarland, Texas, where I grew up, a son of Haitianimmigrants. I attended grades 1 – 12 at a small butcompetitive private school called Garland ChristianAcademy (GCA). During high school, I picked up anickname, Superman, due to all the activities I was involvedwith while maintaining a high GPA.

After graduating from GCA as the first Black class presidentand first Black Salutatorian, this nickname followed me tomy freshman year of college at Southern MethodistUniversity, where I was encouraged to run for classpresident as Carl "Superman" Dorvil. After a toughcampaign, I was elected to the position, and then began thechallenge to live up to my nickname. That first year, Iworked four jobs (Legal Assistant Intern, Calculus Teacher’sAssistant, Tutor at the Altshuler Learning EnhancementCenter, and Psychology Research Assistant) whilemaintaining a 3.88 GPA and being named one of the SilverKey top 15 Freshmen. Throughout my undergraduatecareer, I continued to work multiple jobs and was still ableto earn honors and awards such as the Mortar Board TopTen Sophomore Award, gain acceptance into the SMUPsychological Distinction Program, and earn theOutstanding Minority Student Award.

I graduated from SMU in 2005 with a triple major inPsychology with Distinction, Economics, and Public Policywith a 3.75 GPA.

During January 2004, my third year at SMU, my best friendand future business partner, Ben Bhatti, encouraged me toread the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. After reading the book, Ifelt challenged to start a business. I started GroupExcellence (GE) out of my dorm room. Since then, it hasbeen my pleasure to serve as President/CEO of GE. In thisrole, I lead a team of talented young professionals andcollege students dedicated to the mission of motivating and

“GE has grown from a small,“GE has grown from a small,oneone--man show, with my car asman show, with my car asthe office, into a nearly 300the office, into a nearly 300--

person operation, with officesperson operation, with officesin four Texas cities.”in four Texas cities.”

inspiring students to achieve academic excellence throughmentoring and tutoring. GE has grown from a small, one-man show, with my car as the office, into a nearly 300-person operation, with offices in four Texas cities:Houston, Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth. GE now servesapproximately 5,000 students throughout the state, andour growth is steady.

As I was starting to grow the business, one of my firstclients was the son of Phil Romano. Mr. Romano is thecreator of restaurants such as Romano's Macaroni Grilland Fuddruckers. After hearing about GE, herecommended that I attend SMU's Cox School of Business,where he sits on the Board of Trustees. I took Mr.Romano’s advice and, after getting married in November2005 to my beautiful wife Kara, I began my professionalMasters of Business Administration at Cox in January2006. The knowledge that I gained from business schoolpropelled GE into becoming one of the most respectedtutoring companies under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)Act.

Group Excellence has provided more hours of tutoringunder the NCLB program than any other company in thehistory of Texas. Since my graduation from Cox in May of2008, Group Excellence has continued to thrive. I havealso partnered with my old roommate from SMU, BenGoerz, a BBA Scholar (class of 2006), to start aninteractive online tutoring business called SureStudy, LLC.Of all my accomplishments, the one I am most proud of ismy son Noah, who was born in August 2008. I credit SMUfor giving me the tools and the talent to be able to takeoff my blazer, loosen up my tie and step into thetelephone booth...

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Carl QCarl Q--&&--AAQ: How did Group Excellence grow so big, so fast?A: When I started it, friends said I was crazy. I got ameeting with DISD (Dallas Independent School District)math director and things came together. I started with 80kids and now we’re up to almost 5,000 in 4 cities acrossTexas. The second year it took off when Ben Bhatti came onboard. We worked with 600 students at Samuell HighSchool on the TAKS and had the 2nd highest gains in thedistrict. Things took off with the No Child Left Behind Actand we became the biggest provider of NCLB tutoring inTexas

What’s next?We want to lead Texas in online education. We’ve startedanother company called SureStudy.com which has onlineinteractive AI that learns the kid’s strengths andweaknesses to help them pass the TAKS. We also hope toexpand to Corpus Christi, El Paso, Brownsville and SanAntonio, then other states. We'd rather be great than bigand make sure everything we do is happening at anexcellent level.

What’s your goal?Our mission is simple: what we strive to do better than anyoneelse in the world is motivate and inspire students. Our corestrength is motivation. We bring college students who havebeen successful and take them to areas where hope is a scarcecommodity. We show kids they can do it. We bring college tothem. We're not a tutoring company that mentors, we're amentoring company that tutors - and that makes all thedifference. Sometimes we'll work on a kid's math scores and hisscience and reading scores go up. Once you turn that light switchon for a kid, the whole world changes for him.

Why is mentoring so important to tutoring?Every school has a population of at-risk youth who need an extrapush. Actually, the research shows that we're most successfulwith the kids who seem to be doing the worst, those at thebottom of the barrel, the ones that aren't trying. When a kidscores 10% and 20% on a test there’s something biggerhappening – they aren't even trying. We take that population andshow them school matters. We turn on the light switch and getkids who weren't trying to try.

Why would a college student want to tutordisadvantaged youth?They get an opportunity to see what's going on in education inAmerica. We have a jaded point of view. We start to believesomething is deficient with the students but you see that thesekids have harder stuff to deal with and survival is the No. 1 thingthey are focused on. We've created a situation where, for 2hours after school they, don't have to worry about survival. Theycan just worry about being a kid and learning. Kids know thatwhen they are at Group Excellence, they are safe. We'vedeveloped leadership program to mentor our tutors and we alsobring in business professionals that mentor the tutors. We wantto make sure that everybody leaves us better than they found us.

How has your upbringing affected your mission?Both of my parents were born in Haiti and came to America notknowing how to speak English. My dad told me that if you wantto overcome racism and prejudice, be excellent. Education is thefoundation of possibility in America, so work hard. When I wentback to visit Haiti I saw the poverty and realized that it couldhave been me. I see the opportunity I have and I don't want it tobe said that I wasted this opportunity.

Any interesting facts about you?I’m fluent in French and I do magic.

Why do you do it?I do it to touch lives. I do it because your income should notdetermine your outcome. I do it because somebody helped me. Ido it for the students.

“We're most successful with the“We're most successful with thekids who seem to be doing thekids who seem to be doing theworst, those at the bottom ofworst, those at the bottom of

the barrel, the ones that aren'tthe barrel, the ones that aren'ttrying. When a kid scores 10trying. When a kid scores 10

and 20% on a test there’sand 20% on a test there’ssomething bigger happeningsomething bigger happening ––

they aren't even trying.”they aren't even trying.”


PRESSPRESSMinority Business News TexasAccess Issue 2009


PRESSPRESSSMU MagazineFall/Winter 2008

http://blog.smu.edu/smumagazine/2007/12/applying_group_effort_to_group.html


CONTACTCONTACT

Group ExcellenceCorporate Headquarters – Group Excellence, Ltd

13111 North Central ExpresswaySuite 230

Dallas, TX 75243

[email protected]

Media InquiriesAdrian D. Parker, The Parker Marketing Group

[email protected] // 917-881-2643o // 866-999-TPMG


Carl Dorvil Profile

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