Dorothy Jean Tillman participation in Arizona State University‘s May 6 commencement was the latest step on a higher-education journey she started when she took her first college course at age 10.
In between came associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
When Tillman successfully defended her dissertation in December, she became the youngest person — at age 17 — to earn a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health at Arizona State.
Associate professor Leslie Manson told ABC’s “Good Morning America, – “It’s a wonderful celebration, and we hope … that Dorothy Jean inspires more students.”
Tillman, called “Dorothy Jeanius” by family and friends, is the granddaughter of former Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman.
When most students are just learning to navigate middle school, her mother enrolled Tillman in classes through the College of Lake County in northern Illinois, where she majored in psychology and completed her associate’s degree in 2016.
At ASU, most of her classwork was done remotely and online. Tillman did attend her commencement in person and addressed the graduating class during the ceremony.
Tillman told The Associated Press that she credits her grandmother and trusting in her mother’s guidance for her educational pursuits and successes.