Last night radio host Tom Joyner offered Rachel Jeantel, a key witness in the trial of George Zimmerman over the death of her friend Trayvon Martin, a full ride to college via scholarship, CNN reports. Jeantel was on the phone with Martin on the night he was killed, and Joyner proclaimed that the teen "deserves a chance" at a positive future.
"Rachel, here's my offer to you. If you want to graduate from high school and go to an HBCU, even if it's not in Florida but especially Florida," Joyner said on the air, referring to historically black colleges and universities. "If you want to do that, I want to help you do that. I will help you get tutors to get you out of high school, tutors to help you pass the SAT, and I will give you a full-ride scholarship to any HBCU you'd like."
Nineteen-year old Jeantel touched Joyner with her testimony during the trial and what she said during her own appearance on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live." On Monday during her interview, Jeantel said she was "disappointed, upset, angry, questioning and mad" at Zimmerman's acquittal, and on "Piers Morgan" posed the rhetorical question, "If Trayvon was white and he had a hoodie on, would that have happened?," according to Gawker.
While on the air with "Piers Morgan," host Joyner described how Jeantel's life has been turned upside down over the past year by the death and trial of her friend.
"We talked to her people today and it's going to take some work, first of all to get her a high school diploma, and get her ready for the SAT test, and then entered into college. But we are going to do that," he said. "She deserves a chance."
Jeantel has found herself in the unforgiving spotlight during the highly publicized murder trial, having been criticized for her weight, accent, manner of dress and lying about her age and reasons for skipping Martin's funeral.
However, the teen has found a number of fans and supporters as well who have been praising her for her bravery on the stand as a witness and ability to stand her ground against the defense.
"He was a calm, chill, loving person who loved his family, definitely his mother, and a good friend," Jeantel said of her friend Martin, calling the trial verdict "BS."
