Greatness comes in various shapes, sizes and ages. Meet 17-year-old Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman II, one of the youngest teens to hold a doctorate, NBC 5 reported.
The teen prodigy recently obtained her Ph.D. in integrated behavior health from Arizona State University after earning her high school diploma, bachelor’s and double master’s. The weight of her new title didn’t hit until she used it.
“When I was going to ZooLights, it asked for my title, and I put in ‘doctor’ for the first time. That’s when it first set in,” Tillman shared.
Tillman’s road to educational success commenced at 10 when her mother homeschooled her on the south side of Chicago. Two years later, the science genius earned her bachelor’s degree; at 14, she earned her master’s. The Ph.D. holder had a mixture of in-person and online courses.
“At a very young age, there was a lot I was on top of very fast,” she explained. “There’s also a time where I sit back, and I’m like, this is actually kind of crazy. I accomplished all of this.”
The young game-changer also transformed the STEM program in 2020, launching the Dorothy Jeanius STEAM Leadership Institute. While STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEAM includes arts. The entrepreneur added it because she believed the “left-brain, right-brain” balance was important.
“I felt like I had to be in either an arts program or a STEM program,” Tillman told ABC 7. “I never felt like I got both at the same time. And so, integrating those and making it so they know, like, the right brain can’t work without the left brain, I feel like, is what makes it different. I think the quality is a lot better than the quantity and so, making sure I harp on curriculum.”
Tillman recognized that her accomplishments wouldn’t have been possible without the people she had in her corner, like her mother, Jimalita Tillman, and her grandmother, activist and former alderman of the city’s Third Ward, Dorothy Jean Tillman.
“How she leads within her cohort of those that are in integrated behavioral health, I’m just really proud,” her mother said.
With all that she has accomplished, she wants people to understand she’s still a typical teenager.
“I still hang out with my friends. We still go to the mall. We still like to lay around watch TikTok,” she said.
Dr. Tillman’s commencement ceremony will happen May 6. Her Ph.D. isn’t the only milestone she had to look forward to. Tillman has her 18th birthday, and prom headed her way.
She also made the 2021 Black Enterprise 40 Under 40-Tech list.
