Editor’s Note: Today, the Daily premieres a new series, “After They Walk,” which profiles University alumni who are significantly changing the lives of others for the better. The series, which will run periodically throughout the year, starts with the incredible story of Wendy Rhein, who runs a program for the homeless in Atlanta.

Two years ago, Wilkes Bonhart was smoking a steady dose of about three grams of crack a day, scrounging for food out of dumpsters and sleeping in boarded up, dilapidated homes in inner-city Atlanta.

And although Bonhart now compares his former self to the homeless who wander the streets of Detroit, a brief look at his past would make that comparison quite hard to believe.

In 1988, he graduated from the University of Toledo with a bachelor’s degree in political science. And at age 27, he enrolled in graduate courses in economics at UT. But, because of his constant drug use, Bonhart was forced to drop out of school a few months later.

“That was a decision I regretted for the rest of my life,” Bonhart said in an August phone interview.

In a series of interviews throughout the last couple months, Bonhart was polite and friendly. Amid those conversations, he explained the story of how he ended up on the streets in Atlanta.

“OK, let me tell you a story,” he said when asked about the journey.

And in that moment, Wilkes was no longer the mannerly, courteous civilian who had been a part of the previous conversations. He transformed into his old self, talking slang like “balla” and “playin’ ” and cursing about all the shit he went through while addicted to crack.

He did not hold back.

After burning through his student loans and supporting himself on unemployment checks, Bonhart took his last check in March 1989 and fled south. The next 10 years of his life were spent on the streets. He earned about $500 a week detailing cars — but he quickly spent it all on drugs.

“That was my life,” he said. “Get some more money for some more dope.”

What little money he saved, Bonhart used for food — cheap convenience store products like Little Debbie pastries. He no longer cared about his personal hygiene, bathing once every two months, or when someone told him he smelled.

Bonhart would lie awake at night, he remembered, shivering under his only blanket. As he tried to fall asleep in freezing churches with leaky windows, he dreamed of going back to school to get an education.

“I prayed about it,” he said. “Please, God, if I could just stop smoking dope … if I could just get myself back together.

“But I didn’t know how.”

Wendy Rhein did.

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Known as “Wen” to her friends and family, Wendy Rhein, a 1991 University alum, runs a program for homeless men and women in Lawrenceville, Ga., called NSPIRE. Founded in 2007, the nonprofit organization currently works with 30 former homeless people to teach them the necessary skills and give them the resources to lead a self-sufficient life.

Rhein and her coworkers at NSPIRE, simply put, work to change lives.

“It could be a wide range of issues, but we work with that individual specifically — on how they got there in the first place and then what do they need to do to empower themselves so that this won’t happen again in their lifetime,” Rhein said over the phone from her office in late July. She spoke with confidence, and a firm, yet friendly tone.

More than 100 people have sought help from the program in the last two years. Rhein said it’s “very intense” and that not everyone graduates.

To graduate, participants must pass drug and alcohol screenings, secure a job and a place to live, open and balance a checking account and more. NSPIRE also works with each individual to set personal goals.

Rhein cited Shirley, a 58-year-old woman who had been homeless on and off for the last 15 years. Shirley, whose last name cannot be published here because of privacy concerns, was an alcoholic who couldn’t keep a stable job.