17-year-old Chicago girl earns doctorate from Arizona State University

CHICAGO - Seventeen-year old Chicagoan Dorothy Jean Tillman, who is the granddaughter of former Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman, has earned her doctoral degree from Arizona State University, her family announced.

Tillman got her college degree at age 12 and her masters at age 14. And while most other 17-year-olds are only now applying for college, that's already in the rearview mirror for Tillman, who last week successfully defended her dissertation to earn a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health.

"I feel like it takes good resources and a good team, which I will always praise Arizona State for," said Tillman.

Her research focused on the positive outcomes seen at schools that implement mental health programs.

"[Having a mental health issue] doesn't make you crazy. It doesn't make you any of these negative things; it just makes you human," she said.

Tillman hasn't decided what she's going to do with her degree, but knows it will be entrepreneurial and will address today's mental health crisis. In the short term, she plans on traveling.

"I'm definitely going to take time to learn more about myself and to explore the world," she said.

She also plans on spending time with kids her own age.

"I have best friends that are still in high school and I kind of live vicariously through them," she said, adding that she does plan on going to prom this spring.

Tillman is also 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," she said.  "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."

Tillman plans on going to Tempe, Arizona this spring to receive her doctoral diploma with the rest of her graduating class at ASU.