Dr. Salone Jones, PT, DPT, grew up as an at-risk youth in Savannah, GA. Dr. Jones has two loving parents that were often at work during the early years of her life. Dr. Jones spent most of her adolescents at her maternal grandmother’s house, which was in an inner-city community. She was often verbally and physically abused by her aunt, uncles, and cousins. Growing up as an inner-city youth imprinted social, emotional, and physical combat into her disposition in adolescence.
Dr. Jones loved school and loved learning. But she did not have a healthy start. Dr. Jones entered Kindergarten without knowing her alphabet, basic sight words and lacking an adequate vocabulary to communicate effectively. Starting primary school at an educational disadvantage, she could not catch up, and her reading and writing suffered. The nonverbal communication Dr. Jones received was that she was incapable of achieving more academically.
Dr. Jones was placed into the Specific Learning Disability Program (SLD) in 1994, after 5th grade. Dr. Jones experienced bullying throughout elementary school because the teachers and students considered her retarded. Now with the SLD label, Dr. Jones suffered from low self-esteem and bullying at school and home.
In 1995, Dr. Jones discovered a community center two blocks from her maternal grandmother’s house, which became a turning point for now, teenage Salone. The center offered various cultural enrichment programs for the youth that lived in the community. In addition, the community center housed a professional dance company. Dr. Jones, having no previous training in dance, decided to audition and was given an apprentice role in the dance company. Within a year of auditioning for the dance company, Dr. Jones graduated from an apprentice dancer to a professional dancer and toured with the company. Dance became an escape from the emotional and physical abuse, giving Dr. Jones a way to communicate her thoughts and feelings. For the first time, Dr. Jones saw new possibilities and options in her future.
Dr. Jones still suffered academically, but because of her accelerated growth in dance, Dr. Jones was able to attend a performing arts high school, which exposed her to various cultures and backgrounds. Dr. Jones was still reading on a 5th grade level in 10th grade, but with a self-directed study program she developed, Dr. Jones was able to test out of the SLD program at the end of 10th grade. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones had to stumble her way through the educational system because at five, ten, thirteen-years-old she was shoved in a corner and left with the responsibility of teaching herself?
However, Dr. Jones was able to graduate high school with honors and receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film/Television from Savannah College of Art and Design – under a dance scholarship; and a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from Baylor University.
