Annually, the American Affiliation of Group Schools (AACC) honors group faculty alumni who’ve gone on to do superb issues. This yr, the affiliation will acknowledge three people who find themselves devoted to serving their communities – and their nation. (See their profiles, beneath.)
AACC will have a good time the 2024 Excellent Alumni and their faculties at AACC 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky, on the closing brunch occasion on April 9.
Altering his profession course
Dr. Carl Allamby went from a profitable mechanic to a medical physician, all with the assistance of his local people faculty.
Allamby began at Cuyahoga Group School (Tri-C) as a teenage entrepreneur, contemporary out of highschool and already dwelling on his personal. He enrolled on the Ohio faculty to study auto restore, taking courses at evening and dealing through the day.
His aim was to open his personal auto restore store — a feat he completed when he was solely 19 years previous.
For 25 years, Allamby operated two retailers. Alongside the best way, he enrolled in an evening class program at Ursuline School to sharpen his enterprise abilities. A required biology course woke up his childhood dream of changing into a physician.
However earlier than diving into medical faculty, Allamby returned to Tri-C, taking science programs to make sure he might deal with the fabric. He earned straight A’s.
Allamby enrolled in Cleveland State College, and finally landed a spot at Northeast Ohio Medical College. He graduated from medical faculty on the age of 47 and began his emergency drugs residency. He’s now an attending doctor at Cleveland Clinic’s Hillcrest Hospital.
In 2019, Allamby was named one of many physicians of the yr by Medscape.
A grasp multitasker, Allamby can be a flight doctor for MetroHealth Hospital and an teacher for Superior Trauma Life Help. And as a motivational speaker, he shares his story with others throughout the nation.
By no means forgetting the place he acquired his begin, Allamby has taken on the position of cheerleader for Tri-C. For him, Cuyahoga Group School has been a household affair. 5 of his siblings have attended the school. One in all his sons graduated from the Tri-C Fireplace Academy and EMT coaching applications.
To provide again, Allamby information spots to advertise the school. He additionally helps the Residents for Cuyahoga Group School, which inspires voters to assist poll points that profit the school.
The school’s tagline is “The place futures start.” At Tri-C, Allamby’s future started twice.
Sky-high ambitions
On June 4, 2022, Katya Echazarreta turned the primary Mexican-born and youngest feminine astronaut aboard the Blue Origin NS-21 mission. She was 26.
Her seat in a six-person crew was sponsored by House for Humanity. She was chosen
from greater than 7,000 candidates in over 100 international locations.
That mission superior her personal private mission to offer illustration for ladies and minorities in STEM fields.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Echazarreta moved to the US on the age of seven. She turned a breadwinner for her household at 18, working a job at McDonald’s.
This set the stage for her legend to be launched at San Diego Metropolis School, the place she was empowered by the educational tradition within the Arithmetic, Engineering, Science Achievement Program. Echazarreta earned a 2016 Jack Kent Cooke Switch Scholarship and went on to earn her electrical engineering diploma from UCLA.
Her ardour for house led her to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the place she labored on 5 missions, together with the Mars rover. And she or he’s not carried out studying. She’s finishing a grasp’s program at Johns Hopkins College.
As a social media influencer, Echazarreta makes use of her journey as a girl in STEM to assist others obtain their targets. Her message is resonating around the globe, particularly in Mexico. She addressed its congress to advocate for the development of an area program for Mexico. The nation handed a constitutional reform to create space actions a nationwide precedence. Echazarreta additionally launched a House Basis to sponsor house camps for college kids throughout Mexico.
Due to her management and advocacy, in 2022, she was chosen as a Glamour Mexico Lady of the Yr and named one of many high 100 strongest girls in Mexico by Forbes Mexico.
She has a fireplace station named in her honor and has obtained two honorary doctorates. And an astronaut Barbie was created in her picture in celebration of the 2023 Worldwide Girls’s Day.
Echazarreta’s outstanding achievements are an inspiration for all and an encouragement to college students to dream large.
Advocating for herself
Kayla McKeon’s life has mirrored her favourite quote: “She believed she might, so she did.”
McKeon is a fierce advocate for individuals who are in a different way abled. It’s what led her to turn out to be the primary registered lobbyist in United States historical past with Down Syndrome. She additionally turned a spokesperson and supervisor of grassroots advocacy for the Nationwide Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) and helped them get very important laws handed in Congress.
She was named NDSS’s 2016 Self-Advocate of the Yr.
And McKeon did these items whereas enrolled at Onondaga Group School (OCC) in New York. She first got here to OCC in 2010 as a part of the School for Dwelling program which helps college students with mental disabilities. McKeon began with signal language courses and determined to remain on the faculty, incomes her affiliate diploma in 2022.
Throughout these 12 years at OCC, McKeon additionally interned with U.S. Rep. Jared Katko (R-New York). And she or he accomplished an MIT Administration Govt Schooling program, specializing in management within the digital age.
When she’s not altering legal guidelines or within the classroom, McKeon is a Particular Olympics New York athlete. She received medals on the video games in each Athens, Greece, and Orlando, Florida.
McKeon’s nationwide position led to a high-profile collaboration with toy producer Mattel. And in April 2023, thousands and thousands watched her look on Good Morning America when she unveiled a brand new Barbie Doll with Down Syndrome.
McKeon can be an inspirational public speaker. She says, “I hope my story encourages present and future college students, particularly with disabilities, and reveals them the sky is the restrict in the event that they put within the work and don’t let anybody squash their desires.”
