What goes around comes around. RCP is now a Key Scholarship Partner, and continues to employ, support and mentor Keystone recipients.
Developing and supporting young people has continued to be a significant value in Marcus’s life. “My philosophy is I want my life and work to have a positive impact on our community”.
“Be confident in yourself. Everyone is important; everyone has something to give.”
His father was a pastor and his mother was a teacher. Marcus, a Rangiora High School student, was able to realise his long-held vision to train as an architect when he was awarded a Keystone Study Award in 1998.
He no longer needs to borrow a kit. Marcus is now a director for RCP – the leading provider of independent project management and strategic advisory services to New Zealand’s property and construction industry. He’s responsible for the South Island offices, which has seen him deeply involved in – among other things – post-earthquake renewal projects, including the Justice Precinct, two cathedrals and the university. Further south, he’s a project lead in the design of the new billion-dollar Dunedin Hospital.
The role he holds now had its beginnings in his university days. He worked as an intern at RCP during the summer holidays and really enjoyed the teamwork and leadership experience. When Marcus completed his studies: “I asked for a reference. And they said ‘well, we can give you a reference but we’d rather give you a job.’ And that’s how I ended up here.”
That placement illustrates the wider cloak that Keystone provides, says Marcus. “It’s more than the money; it’s the network, the support and the mentoring.” The original transition for the Rangiora High School student to university life in Auckland city was a very big thing for
him, but his Keystone mentor helped build the connections he needed – something he appreciates to this day.
What goes around comes around. RCP is now a Key Scholarship Partner, and continues to employ, support and mentor Keystone recipients.
Developing and supporting young people has continued to be a significant value in Marcus’s life. While a student, he was involved in Christian youth group ventures which saw him assume leadership and fund-raising roles, as well as travel overseas on missions. An example: he helped build houses for Habitat For Humanity in Fiji. “My philosophy is I want my life and work to have a positive impact on our community”.
He and his wife Emma have four boys – all of them still at school. In terms of juggling a work-life balance, he says he sees himself primarily as a husband and father, and tries to contain his work life to week days while making sure weekends are family-focused.
Marcus enjoys art, music and ongoing learning which has spurred him to explore new pursuits, including learning te reo Māori, which he and Emma both now speak. Their boys are learning it too.
“We thought that was important,” he says – and it’s something he would have advised his younger self to have learnt.
That and the following: “Be confident in yourself. Everyone is important; everyone has something to give.”
