Afrigather 
A teen who began school on the age of 10 earned a doctorate diploma at 17
Dorothy Jean Tillman II’s participated in Arizona State College’s graduation on Might 6. It was the most recent step on a higher-education journey the Chicago teen began when she took her first school course at age 10.
In between she earned affiliate’s, bachelor’s and grasp’s levels.
When Tillman efficiently defended her dissertation in December, 2023, she turned the youngest particular person — at age 17 — to earn a doctoral diploma in built-in behavioral well being at Arizona State, affiliate professor Leslie Manson informed ABC’s “Good Morning America” for a narrative Monday.
“It’s a beautiful celebration, and we hope … that Dorothy Jean conjures up extra college students,” Manson mentioned. “However that is nonetheless one thing so uncommon and distinctive.”
Tillman, referred to as “Dorothy Jeanius” by household and associates, is the granddaughter of former Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman.
When most college students are simply studying to navigate center college, her mom enrolled Tillman in lessons via the Faculty of Lake County in northern Illinois, the place she majored in psychology and accomplished her affiliate’s diploma in 2016, in response to her biography.
Tillman earned a bachelor’s in humanities from New York’s Excelsior Faculty in 2018. About two years later, she earned her grasp’s of science from Unity Faculty in Maine earlier than being accepted in 2021 into Arizona State’s Behavioral Well being Administration Program.
Most of her classwork was accomplished remotely and on-line.
Tillman attended her Arizona State graduation in particular person and addressed the graduating class in the course of the ceremony.
Tillman informed The Related Press on Tuesday, Might 14, that she credit her grandmother and trusting in her mom’s steering for her instructional pursuits and successes.
“Every part that we had been doing didn’t appear irregular to me or out of the odd till it began getting the entire consideration,” mentioned Tillman, now 18.
