It has been approximately one year later since the announcement of the controversial verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty for the death of Trayvon Martin.

Martin's friend Rachel Jeantel was a key witness in the Zimmerman trial and spoke fondly of Trayvon on the witness stand.

However, her use of slang in her testimony and her inability to read a letter presented to her during the trial was quickly overshadowed by critics' slamming Jeantel for being illiterate.

Despite the ridicule and backlash that Jeantel faced during the Zimmerman trial, she admitted that, a year later, her life has changed.

At the time of the trial, Jeantel was reading at a fourth grade level, but now the young woman has managed to graduate high school with the help of tutors and rigorous studying.

"Now she has turned her life around, thanks to hard work and some Good Samaritans," said ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, who introduced Jeantel's updated story as part of ABC's "Sunday Spotlight" segment.

Matt Gutman sat down with Jeantel and her attorney Rod Vereen for an update on how the young girl has been doing since the death of her close friend and the public scrutiny she was forced to endure from the media.

"I didn't like what took place in social media, the attacks that she received nationwide," said Vereen in response to the backlash Jeantel received during the Zimmerman trial. "I couldn't turn my back to that, and I couldn't turn a blind eye to the problems that I knew she had"

Gutman went on to reveal that Vereen has since hired tutors to coach Jeantel with reading and writing. The tutors would sit down with Jeantel and coach her for up to seven hours a day, and though the tutoring proved to be challenging for Jeantel, she said, "That's what I needed to be honest."

Now that she has graduated high school, Jeantel revealed that she has her sights set on college so that she can follow her dreams.

Check out the video to the full interview below.


ABC News

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