Vernon Hills Teen Paid to Drop Out of College to Pursue Dream

Like tech legends Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Kevin Wang, of Vernon Hills, is leaving college behind to pursue "other interests," meaning he will be working on building his own company as a recipient of 2013 Thiel Fellowship.

The Thiel Fellowship was created by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel to give entrepreneurs the means to bypass college and work on their own tech projects.

Wang, a "20 Under 20" Thiel Fellow, will receive $100,000 over two years in addition to a mentorship from the foundation’s network of tech entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, thought leaders, futurists and innovators to pursue his own business, according to the foundation's website.

Wang, 18, was a freshman at the University of California at Berkley studying computer science when he took a gamble on the Thiel Fellowship, reported the Vernon Hills Review. 

As a Thiel Fellow, Wang will work on his company, TL;DR Legal, which in Internet speak means "too long, didn't read." His goal is to provide web-based tools to make software license agreements less complicated and less likely to result in legal hassles, reported the Chicago Tribune.