(NewsNation) — A 17-year-old Chicago native has become the youngest to graduate from Arizona State University after obtaining her third post-secondary education degree: A doctoral degree.

Dorothy Jean Tillman II’s participation in the 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.

While most of her classwork was done remotely and online, Tillman attended her commencement in person and addressed the graduating class during the ceremony.

“It really felt like insane. It was really fun because I felt like I hadn’t had a graduation like that, where I felt like I remember growing up and I remember doing the work,” Tillman said. “Even though my program with ASU was online, it was still different, like walking in my graduation, meeting all my teachers, and just being there immersed in all of the ‘Arizonanes’, and I celebrated with all of my family.”

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” for a story Monday.

Tillman, called “Dorothy Jeanius” by family and friends, is the granddaughter of former Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman. She credits her grandmother for her educational pursuits and successes.

“My granny always being like stay educated, always read something — even the magazines in our house were educational — definitely made me big on education from a young age,” Dr. Tillman said.

Tillman said she’s unsure what’s next but wants to explore the world and discover “the things I like and I don’t like.”

“I’m still young and I feel like there’s a lot that I don’t know, and there’s a lot that I want to know, and I just want to see about the world and what it has to offer,” she said.

Tillman earned a bachelor’s in humanities from New York’s Excelsior College in 2018. About two years later, she earned her master’s of science from Unity College in Maine before being accepted in 2021 into Arizona State’s Behavioral Health Management Program.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.