She just graduated college at 15. She wants you to 'never let people tell you no.'

Alena McQuarter enrolled at Arizona State University to pursue her passions in STEM.

But this year, the 15-year-old left the school with a degree, a newfound voice of her own and even more purpose than she had before.

She graduated on Dec. 11 with her bachelor's of science degree in biological sciences with an emphasis on biomedical sciences and a minor in global health. She’ll earn her master’s from ASU in biology in May, she told USA TODAY on Friday.

While pursuing her degrees at ASU, McQuarter successfully defended a thesis and joined groups such as the Black Student Union.

She also ran the Brown STEM Girl Foundation, her organization for girls of color who want to study science, technology, engineering and math.

It has always been her intent to create space for other girls like herself but college, she said, showed her there’s a lot more she wants to do.

“I'm a philanthropist,” she said. “I'm an activist. I'm passionate about humanity … I'm more than just STEM and that's what college helped me to figure out. I have a voice and I want to use my voice and my platform to root for the underdog and to raise and lift other girls and women of color and to give a space for them.”

She spent most of her academic career at ASU completing courses online from her home base, Roanoke, Texas, about 20 miles north of Fort Worth. She went to Arizona State for her last semester of college though, she said.

Her ASU experience taught her that she’s passionate about current events such as the Israel-Hamas war and the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman who in 2022 died in police custody in Iran.

Perhaps one of the most important activities she got involved in at ASU is the Student Outbreak Response Team. Working under an ASU epidemiologist, McQuarter was part of a team that investigated and responded to the spread of COVID-19 in Arizona.

The program, she said, helped her realize she’s very passionate about global health and advocating for people who don’t have access to healthcare.

And there’s more where that enlightening experience came from. She was also part of a program that allowed her to speak to immigrants whose families were trying to come to the U.S.

“Hearing their stories just really gave me a bigger voice,” she said. “I just had to stop and be like ‘You have a platform, Lena.’ I can use my platform to be a voice to these issues.”

Being a teenager in college came with unique challenges

McQuarter said many people think she makes college look easy but she still has to study just like anyone else. Also, some people didn’t take her seriously due to her young age.

“They think it's a joke or they think you're not mature enough to handle it,” said McQuarter, who previously graduated from high school at just 12 years old.

Sometimes she felt she had to prove herself but then she realized she didn’t at all. Her work speaks for itself.

She has consistently been on the dean's list and she received a dean’s medal from the School of Life Sciences in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU, the highest academic honor that a student can receive at the university.

She said she had “the best experience ever” at ASU and had lots of professors, lab mentors and more to provide guidance and a listening ear.

“It's one of the most amazing experiences ever and I'm looking forward to, now that I've graduated, making a bigger impact in the world,” she said.

Bachelor’s? Check. Master’s? Loading. Next stop...Doctoral degree!

McQuarter said after graduating with her master’s in May from ASU, she’ll pursue her doctor of philosophy in virology and infectious disease.

She’s not sure what school she’s going to yet but she has applied to some already.

In the running are the University of California, Irvine, the University of Texas Health Science Center, the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Baylor University, Texas A&M University and Morehouse College.

She also wants to expand her organization, the Brown STEM Girl Foundation, globally.

“I want to really, really focus more on mental health and college students,” she said. “Making sure that college students have access to mental health services while they're in college.”

She wants to get back in the lab, create vaccines, travel the world and see what she can do to help people.

And in addition to being an esteemed student, she stressed that she’s still a teenager and made time to do things outside of school. She had a great friend group, loves to sing, she’s super athletic and she’s “extremely competitive,” she said.

“I love hanging out with my friends and being a teenager,” she said. “Where I’m headed, who knows? I’m 15. I'm not rushed to do anything. I'm doing everything on my terms and I'm looking forward to the future and I'm looking forward to whatever God has for me.”

She also has an animated series in the works, as well as other projects beyond STEM because there’s much more to her than that, she said.

“There's things that I'm passionate about beyond just STEM and that keeps me grounded,” she said.

For those thinking about pursuing something that scares them, even the tiniest bit, she has a word of advice.

“Never let people tell you no,” she said. “It's not always going to look glamorous. You have to get down, deep in the dirt and do it. Do the work. Keep going. Don't let people tell you what you can't do and silence out the noise around you. Keep the main thing the main thing.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alena McQuarter, 15-year-old college grad, shares how she carved path