Graduating Student Spotlight: Afton Salas
Afton Salas was 30 years old when she decided to pursue a social work career, but knew she wanted to get a doctoral degree since she was a child. Salas, a non-traditional student throughout her adult life, will graduate with her Doctor of Social Work degree this year from the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare.
Salas is a program manager for University Health’s Community Behavioral Health Clinic in Jackson County, Missouri. She aspires to do more program evaluation and development with her DSW.
Get to know more about Salas as she shares her thoughts ahead of graduation.
Can you share some of your social work background and how you ended up in the DSW program?
Salas: “I’ve worked in behavioral health my whole career. I worked at Restart for a couple of years and that's also behavioral health in a way, if not directly. Getting my doctorate is just something I've always known I wanted to do. I think I was 7 years old the first time I decided I was going to do that.”
How did you know you wanted to go this far with your education from such a young age?
Salas: “I was a nerd. I read all the time. I can’t remember what exactly sparked it, but I just knew I wanted to get a doctorate. I never leaned towards medicine or anything like that. It was more of a Ph.D. realm..”
Can you share the focus of your capstone project?
Salas: “It's a program prospectus looking at reducing early psychiatric rehospitalization. The Kansas City area experiences early psych rehospitalization at almost double the national average. And Jackson County is very divided. There are four different community behavioral health centers within the county, two hospitals with three inpatient units. I'm looking at how we can reduce the numbers of early psych rehospitalizations with a prospectus of social work intervention.”
What are your thoughts going into graduation, knowing this was a long-term goal for you?
Salas: “It's a weird place of being anxious and excited, and it doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like it's been three years, but at the same time, I'm ready to be done now. I can't believe I'm almost there, and I'm nervous and excited because I still have to get through the whole capstone project defense process, you know? There is that anxious, excited feeling. But I've got a really great chair, and I'm not nervous about the process.”
Do you have any advice for anyone who is considering getting a DSW?
Salas: “Obviously, you wouldn't know exactly what you want your project or research to focus on before entering the program. But having an idea of where you see gaps in the system, and where you might like to try and fill those gaps, would allow you to come into the program and hit the ground running. I also think having either some education or leadership experience coming into the program is an important aspect. That could be whether you've supervised students or if you have staff that reports to you, some type of supervision or education experience. That would be beneficial.”