The Illinois teenager, who was acquitted of fatally shooting two men and wounding another during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has spent the past month raising speculation — and causing some confusion — about where he will go to college.
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He appeared Friday on The Charlie Kirk Show and said he intended to attend A&M, leading a spokeswoman at the four-year university to clarify his denied status on Sunday. Rittenhouse then took to Twitter on Monday, sharing his plans to move to Texas at the end of the month so he can attend the junior college in Brenham and transfer to Texas A&M two years later.
Blinn boasts strong university transfer rates, especially to Texas A&M, but admittance is not guaranteed.
“Unfortunately, the end of my high school career was robbed from me. I didn’t have the time other students get to properly prepare for the future,” he tweeted. “I look forward to attending Blinn College District this year, a feeder school for Texas A&M. I’m excited to join Texas A&M in 2023!”
Rittenhouse has applied but has not yet enrolled in any classes at Blinn, which is an open-enrollment school, a spokesperson at the college confirmed Monday.
The 19-year-old suggested last month that he may be interested in attending Texas A&M. On Instagram, he posted a photo of himself sitting in an oversized chair featuring the Texas A&M logo. He captioned the photo “I’m thinking about staying.”
Rittenhouse, wearing a Texas A&M baseball cap, later told Kirk he planned to attend the university. He also told Kirk he was considering joining the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M, but had not yet decided.
“I’m gonna be going there, and it’s gonna be awesome,” Rittenhouse told Kirk, according to a video clip of the appearance that circulated on social media. “Beautiful campus, amazing people, amazing food.”
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During his high-profile trial, Rittenhouse also said he was taking online courses at Arizona State University. The university subsequently said he was not a student at ASU.
The Arizona Republic reported that Rittenhouse had been interested in a nursing career and enrolled at ASU as a non-degree-seeking online student for a session that began in October 2021. However, Rittenhouse had not gone through the admissions process and was not enrolled in the nursing school.
A jury acquitted Rittenhouse of multiple charges, including homicide, following his 2021 trial. Rittenhouse argued he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz during a protest in the summer of 2020. He was 17 years old at the time.
Rittenhouse said he traveled from Illinois to Wisconsin to protect the streets from protesters in the days after a Kenosha police officer shot and seriously injured Jacob Blake.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Kyle-Rittenhouse-says-he-will-attend-Blinn-17223154.php