After running a successful car repair business for over 20 years, Carl Allamby decided to take night classes in pursuit of a business degree that would help him expand his operations. However, a required biology class ended up changing his life.
“Most people go into business not because they’re good businessmen but because they’re good at whatever their trade is. I was good at fixing cars,” he said. “I just felt like if I really wanted to grow this and grow it right, I really needed a foundational education in business to really understand it.”
When he finally enrolled in the class, Allamby at age 40 at the time, was inspired by his professor, Dr. Micah Watts, to go into medicine.
“He just lit up when he walked into the room,” Allamby said in an interview with Cleveland.com. “After the first hour of class, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do. I have to go into medicine.’ It was like a light switched on.”
A resident of East Cleveland, Allamby was 1 of 6 siblings and grew up in a household trying to make ends meet. He got his first job when he was 16 years old at an auto parts store and that naturally progressed into what would become a thriving car repair business for the next 18 years. “Through high school, I don’t remember a single person talking to me about college, it was mostly going and finding a factory job or go to the military,” Allamby said. “I ended up finding a job.”
After earning his business degree with a 3.98 GPA, Allamby started taking basic science courses at Cuyahoga Community College and then earned a second undergraduate degree from Cleveland State University.
Then after earning that second undergraduate degree, Allamby went on to enroll in the Partnership for Urban Health’s program, which works to find and train minority doctors to work in urban communities. Ultimately auctioning off his business in order to balance medical school with his family and student loans wasn’t easy, but he made it happen.
Not only that, he did it while getting exceptional grades, serving as the student rep for the school’s Board of Trustees and earning high ratings from patients.
Allamby is now completing his three-year residency in emergency medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital. On top of his personality, academic record and work ethic, his race will benefit his patients.
“There are so many times throughout the different hospitals where I will walk in and (a black patient) will say,
‘Thank God there’s finally a brother here,’” Allamby said. “I think you remove a lot of those barriers when there is a person there who looks like you.”
So what do his former car customers think?
“I’m telling you, this guy worked nonstop. He could fix the cars in his sleep,” said longtime customer Tawanah Key.
“He’s really smart, he can make a diagnosis on a car like nobody’s business,” said another customer, Karen Roane.
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