Austin Polytechnical Academy in Chicago will welcome 258 students this fall in its high-tech manufacturing training program — a triumph at what was one of the city’s most violence-scarred schools.

The academy is also a triumph for Dan Swinney, a former machinist who helped create the new school within the public school system in 2007. The academy is intended to deliver a “two-fer”: help for beleaguered manufacturing firms and an economic jolt to struggling communities.

After working for 20 years in the field of nuclear medicine, Sharon Burns decided to take some time off so she could volunteer in school alongside her son, who had some learning issues. Little did she know that the experience would lead to her encore career.