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Temple student wins big on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’

Tune in Friday afternoon to see Deandre Jefferson try to break the bank

When Deandra Jefferson was selected to compete on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the jaunt up to the studio in Stamford, Conn., became "a family road trip. My parents rented a van and we all went up – my parents, my cousin, my best friend, my little brother and my grandmother."

As you'll see on Friday afternoon (2 p.m. on 6ABC), the East Mount Airy native and Temple University senior was pretty relaxed on camera. In part that was because the game show's host, Terry Crews, put her at ease. "He's really cool," says Deandre, 21. "I guess he played football here for awhile [backup linebacker for the Eagles in 1996]. And he was talking about all the places he used to go in Philadelphia when he lived here."

She doesn't rattle easily anyway. "I'm a dance major and I've been on stage my whole life. Lights and cameras, I'm pretty comfortable with."

There was only one point during the taping that threw her. "They had a question about the pope," she says. " I'm Baptist so there's no way I knew that. I was flying by the seat of my pants." Jefferson in fact is so devout that she's tithing a portion of her winnings to her place of worship, the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church on Cheltenham Avenue.

She's forbidden from revealing how much she won, but says most of it is going into savings (she wants to open her own dance studio in Philadelphia some day), with a little set aside for a shopping spree.

You don't have to be a millionaire to enjoy retail therapy. Of course, it helps.

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