Dorothy Jean Tillman, a seventeen-year-old Chicago resident, has already gotten her doctorate from Arizona State University.
Tillman, the granddaughter of former Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman, graduated from high school at the age of 12 and from college at the age of 14. While her peers were applying to colleges, Tillman recently successfully defended her dissertation to get a doctorate in integrated mental health.
The teen genius told Fox32Chicago, “I feel like it takes good resources and a good team, which I will always praise Arizona State for.”
Tillman’s study emphasized the favorable benefits seen in schools that employ mental health initiatives. “[Having a mental health issue] does not make you crazy,” she emphasized. It does not give you any of these undesirable characteristics; it simply makes you human.”
She hasn’t decided what she’ll do with her degree yet, but she believes it will be entrepreneurial and deal with the current mental health epidemic. Her short-term aspirations include traveling and exploring the world.
The tech and arts enthusiast also intends to spend time with her peers and even attend prom this spring. She shared, “I have best friends that are still in high school, and I kind of live vicariously through them.”
She also wants to fly to Tempe, Arizona, this spring to earn her doctorate diploma among the rest of her ASU graduating cohort.
She wrote on Instagram “I am now Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman, DBH, since successfully defending my dissertation last week. I’m looking forward to participating in commencement activities at ASU in Phoenix next May. I have so many people to thank for supporting me on this journey, but for now, I’ll just say thank you to my No. 1 champion, my Mom, @jimalita!”
Tillman, who is also a young entrepreneur, is focused on the summer camp she founded four years ago, which offers Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) curriculum to 9 to 14-year-olds in Bronzeville.
“A lot of people are used to STEM camps, which is just science, technology, engineering and math. But I felt like that right brain/left brain dynamic was never explored in a lot of programs I had been put in, so I wanted to create my own program,” she remarked.