A 17-year-old Chicago girl made history when she became the youngest person in her university program to ever earn a doctorate. Dorothy Jean Tillman II described her experience as "surreal" in a post shared to Instagram, on May 10.
"To get the opportunity to speak on the stage in front of 20,000 people live and 3 million online was truly an honor," she wrote. "Nice to meet you, I'm an alumni [sic] of Arizona State University!"
Tillman, the granddaughter of civil rights activist and former Chicago alderwoman Dorothy Tillman I, was homeschooled for much of her childhood. She earned her associate's degree in 2016 after taking classes at College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Two years later, she earned her bachelor's degree through the online degree program Excelsior University.
"I'm really just grateful that the world is my oyster, and that I've done so much so young," she told Good Morning America. "And I have time to kind of think that through."
Tillman earned her doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health through an online program at Arizona State University. Associate Professor Lesley Manson told Good Morning America that Tillman is the youngest person in her program's history to earn the degree.
The teenager interned at a university health center and published articles during her graduate studies, garnering praise from her instructors in the process.
"She really led change and worked on different forms of management to really reduce healthcare stigma and improve that student population there to be able to enter and accept student health services," Manson told Good Morning America.
"It was wonderful to see her and help her navigate some of those personal and professional interactions and grow through those experiences."
Tillman credits her family - particularly her mother and grandmother - for helping instill the value of education and hard work. But she also emphasized her personal commitment to academics as being important in finding success.
"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 told Good Morning America. "But the way I always held education so high on my own, aside from being raised that way, was finding different things to be educated about."
