This past summer, Devin Howard, a young man dressed in a sharp gray suit, attended the graduation ceremony for the first-ever women’s electrician class at the Project H.O.O.D. community center and stole the show with one line: "Poverty ran my family until it ran into me." He had been invited to speak because of his success. Several years ago, Howard graduated from the Project H.O.O.D. construction class and landed a job as project manager at one of Chicago’s major construction companies, Reed Construction. His path, however, was not a straight one.
