Meet Texas' youngest attorney and African American Harvard law graduate, Cortlan Wickliff

November 22, 2019
Sammy Turner (KVUE)

Wickliff of Pflugerville was the youngest engineer in the country, youngest African American Harvard Law School graduate and youngest licensed attorney in Texas.

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A Plfugerville High School graduate is on a tour to motivate students across more than 20 cities to take their education more seriously.

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Cortlan Wickliff's accomplishments include becoming the youngest engineer in the country after he graduated from Rice University at age 19, becoming the youngest African American to graduate Harvard Law School at the age of 22 and becoming the youngest licensed attorney in Texas at age 23.

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Wickliff uses his experience as a way to try and inspire young students.

"Something that I always talk to students about is that once you get up to college, that's not what gets you through," said Wickliff. "It is hard work and it is being motivated."

Wickliff said his key motivation was to just "not be broke."

"Unfortunately, when I was 10, my dad passed away and it was right after my mom had quit her job to go back to school. So we went to a two-income household to a no-income household pretty much overnight," Wickliff explained.

He said the experience made him want to make sure he would always be able to take care of his family.

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Wickliff decided to start speaking to and motivating students after noticing that many high school students were worried about their future prospects. He said the goal is to make sure to do his part to inspire the students and to challenge them to do better.

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Wickliff said that if students had any questions or wanted advice, they can contact him online.