June 13, 2019 | UHCL Staff
After beginning a job as a case manager for the Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD, Aston Wallin met someone involved in a school psychology program. Because he was interested in working with children with autism, he began looking for a Specialist in School Psychology program and found University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in terms of my career after I got my undergraduate degree,” Wallin said. “When I worked at MHMRA, I worked with kids and helped get them connected to psychiatric care. I didn’t really know what kind of clients I wanted to work with.” He met someone who was working in a school psychology program and thought it sounded interesting. While he was looking around for programs to continue his education, he found UH-Clear Lake and decided that he would like to take advantage of the research and training opportunities the university offered students at CADD.
“When I got into UHCL, I got linked with the Lonestar LEND Fellowship, which enabled me to become more educated about autism,and gave me a stipend to visit clinics and meet medical practitioners,” Wallin said. “It gives you a breadth of knowledge. And within the UHCL program, we worked at CADD on campus with children with autism and their families.”
The Specialist in School Psychology, Wallin explained, is like a master’s degree in psychology plus one year of internship. “During my second year, we did a practicum and went into the schools to get acclimated to the environment,” he said. “I finished my year-long internship the same place where I did my practicum —Fort Bend Independent School District.”
Wallin graduated in May from UHCL and is now a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology. He received the Outstanding Student award from UHCL’s College of Human Sciences and Humanities. “My professors were extremely knowledgeable and very well-known in the field,” he said. “At some other universities, you might feel some distance between yourself and your professors, but that wasn’t the case at UHCL. My professors were always very open and I knew they wanted me to succeed. I know I’m very well prepared for my job, and Fort Bend ISD must think so too, because I have been hired to work there in the fall.”
As an LSSP, Wallin said he will be assessing students who have been referred by teachers or family to evaluate whether they might need special services. “With a referral, I would do a full individual evaluation to explore all the areas in which a child might be impaired,” he explained. “I would do a full IQ test, an achievement test, evaluate behavior and grades. From there, we decided if the student has a disability, and then we create a plan for specialized services. I get a lot of satisfaction when I’m able to help a student figure out what they need to help them be successful.”
