A Chicago teenager, Dorothy Jean Tillman II, walked into her university’s commencement programme after making history by earning a doctorate at the age of 17.
Tillman, celebrating the rare accomplishment, described commencement week as “surreal” and “full of reflection and inspiration” in a post to Instagram.
“I got a chance to meet many of my classmates in person and professors,” she said. “To get the opportunity to speak on the stage in front of 20,000 people live, and 3 million online was truly an honour.”
She began her collegiate career at 10, while most of her peers were still navigating middle school and awkward adolescence.
Tillman, who was homeschooled in childhood, began taking college classes through the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, about two hours outside of Chicago.
She earned her associate’s degree in 2016 and finished her bachelor’s degree at Excelsior University, an online degree programme based in Albany, New York, in 2018.
After completing a master of science degree in 2020, Tillman was accepted into the Doctorate of Behavioural Health Management programme at Arizona State University in 2020, at the age of 15.
Tillman successfully defended her dissertation in December, joining her classmates in person at ASU’s spring commencement on 6 May.
Leslie Manson, the associate professor who oversaw Tillman’s dissertation through ASU’s online programme, said Tillman was the youngest person to complete a doctoral degree in integrated behavioural health at ASU.
“It’s a wonderful celebration … but this is still something so rare and unique,” Manson said. “She has innovative ideas and motivation, which is wonderful, and truly, I think what is inspiring is that she embodies that meaning of being a true leader.”
Tillman credited her family as one of her biggest inspirations to complete her graduate studies.
“Seeing my mother consistently work so hard to continuously uphold our family’s legacy and be that person that everyone was able to go to, if they needed anything … always seeing [her] like Wonder Woman definitely made me want to grow up [into] an accomplished person,” Tillman said to Good Morning America.
Tillman is also the granddaughter of Dorothy Tillman, the former Chicago alderwoman who was involved in the civil rights movement.
“People in my life like my grandmother, who was part of the civil rights movement, she of course harped on the importance of education and consistently learning something always,” Tillman said.
With her degrees now done, Tillman told GMA that she plans to continue reflecting on what her specific goals are as well as focus on other interests, including public speaking and a leadership institute she created.
“I’m really just grateful that the world is my oyster, and that I’ve done so much so young,” she said. “And I have time to kind of think that through.”
