Montez King, executive director of the National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS), grew up in a poor neighborhood in Baltimore. He was exposed to the world of machining at the age of 13.

“I started hanging around some kids who were talking about applying to a trade school,” he recalls. “I didn’t understand what all that meant, but I just followed the crowd because they seemed to be very positive. Considering where I grew up, I wanted to do something different with my life instead of becoming a statistic.”

Read the rest of the article on the SME website in their Humans of Manufacturing series.