At the age of 19, Haley Taylor Schlitz from Dallas, Texas has made history as the youngest African American ever to graduate from law school. She previously gained national attention when she wasΒ accepted to 9 law schoolsΒ when she was just 16-years old.
For the past 3 years, Haley has been a law student at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. Now, she is set to graduate on May 13th when she will officially become the youngest Black graduate from a law school.
After earning her law degree, Haley hopes to start working on education policy issues that she had always been interested in. The issue is personal to her since she herself experienced disadvantages in education. Because of her skin color, she was denied a chance to enter the gifted program in grade school.
She was later found out to be gifted after when parents had her privately tested and they decided to homeschool her. She eventually graduated high school at the age of 13, went to community college, and then to Texas Women’s University before attending law school at SMU.
While studying law, Haley has shown her passion for public policy discussions. She was just 17-years old when she was chosen to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, making her one of the youngest delegates that year.
Moreover, Haley serves as a mentor in the Young Scholar Program wherein she mentors young Black girls and helps develop their leadership skills. She is also a recurring opinion columnist for Blavity and Blavity U.
