This North Campus Graduate Was Once Homeless—Now He’s Headed To Howard University

As a 14-year-old, Quran Howard suffered from food insecurity. His mother, who Howard says was battling a drug addiction, was unable to provide for him and his five siblings.

So every Saturday, the teenager got in line at the local food bank in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to get a week’s supply of dairy products, grains and produce. 

Nine years later, the 23-year-old is doing all he can to assure others don’t struggle like he did. 

Howard has completed more than 5,000 community service hours at places  like the Sodexo Stop Hunger Grant Organizer/Garden, which combats nationwide food insecurity, and the Youth Rebuild New Orleans, which rebuilds distressed and foreclosed homes.

In March, the North Campus alum was named a national 2021-22 Newman Civic Fellow—the highest honor for student engagement leadership.

“I think a person’s legacy and their responsibilities shouldn’t only be within the confines of where they were born,” Howard said. “We have a responsibility to make the world a better place.” 

Early Struggles

Howard was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1997. He entered the foster care system at birth because his parents were dealing with substance abuse issues, according to Howard. 

Eighteen months later, he was adopted by his aunt Renee Cross, who he stayed with until he was three when his dad reclaimed him. Howard stayed with his dad for about two years. 

They were homeless for a while—forced to couch surf to keep a roof over their head—until he moved in with another aunt, Francine Taylor, who lived in California. He stayed with her until the second grade when his dad returned a second time. 

But five years later, Howard said his dad started abusing drugs again so he moved back with Cross, who was now in Florida. After middle school, Howard reconnected with his mother and returned to New Jersey. 

“It was very weird,” Howard recalled. “Seeing her for the first time felt different. “One day I didn’t have a mom and five other siblings, and the next day I did have a mother and five other siblings.” 

He graduated from Perth Amboy High School in 2015 and enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C. After one semester, he left because he couldn’t afford it, but not before he was saddled with a $12,000 debt. 

“I was depressed,” Howard said. “I was attending this prestigious school and I was doing awesome and [then] I saw myself back in New Jersey and I was doing really bad.”

In 2018, Howard moved back to Miami with Cross and started working as a security guard at Marlins Park—now known as loanDepot Park—before enrolling at Miami Dade College.

“The first couple paychecks [from loanDepot Park] paid for my schooling,” Howard said. 

Howard took a job at the iCED department at North Campus where he dealt with community partners and organizations and helped students fulfill their service learning requirements. He also served as an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer with Single Stop and oversaw the food pantry’s daily operations from the summer of 2018 to March of 2021. 

“He is friendly with everybody and has a wonderful perspective,” said Alison Kasney, the iCED program director at North Campus. “He is always thoughtful and knows how to bring student voices to the forefront.”

Helping The Community

The experience fueled his desire to help the community.

In April of 2019, Howard partnered with the Sodexo Stop Hunger Grant to reorganize the garden at North Campus. He hosted an event called Global Youth Day that recruited more than 100 students, staff and volunteers who planted vegetables at the facility. 

The produce from the garden now goes to the College’s food pantry. 

In May of 2019, Howard participated in the Alternative Breaks program. The initiative allowed 15 students to travel to New Orleans that summer to build homes for public school teachers who had their houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Weeks after returning from New Orleans, Howard participated in a study abroad program in Ecuador with the Verde Milenio Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on sustainable volunteering and ecotourism, to help pick up trash in the Galápagos Island. 

“He is very driven by his goals. He is a really good guy. He’s become my friend, not just a coworker,” said Alexandra Yvette Santamaria, who is also an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer at Single Stop. “He’s very caring and he wants others to succeed.” 

Howard is currently working on his own community project—Biking2theMarket. It secures fresh produce from local farmers markets and delivers it to low-income areas in Miami-Dade County via bicycles. The project is being funded by a $1,000 grant he was awarded through the Awesome Foundation.

Saturday, Howard graduated from North Campus with an associate’s degree in political science. This fall, he is returning to Howard University—this time with the aid of a scholarship and grants.

“I feel like life is hard and complicated but you have to keep going,” Howard said. “No matter what life throws at you, there is always something or someone that has your back and you have to keep going.”