By Larry Kane

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Fourteen-year-old Jessica is only in ninth grade, but she already has her mind made up: she wants to serve her country.

(KYW’s Larry Kane.)

“I want to be in the military,” she tells KYW Newsradio, “because I want to serve our country. I really don’t know exactly (what I want to do), but I just know that I want to be in the military because I’m in ROTC in high school. We have to get dressed every Wednesday — in uniform — and we do rifle training.”

Her social worker, Tamara Reddick, says Jessica has a big heart.

“She’s very caring — she looks after the other person. So, to hear her say she wants to go into the military and help people, that pretty much sums up Jessica,” says Reddick.

Gloria Hochman, of the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia, says Jessica needs a permanent family who will nurture her dreams.

“Teenagers — there are many of them that need families desparately. They need them every bit as much as a toddler needs a family,” Hochman says.

For more information about adopting Jessica or any other child, go to the National Adoption Center’s  web site, www.adopt.org, or call 215-735-9988.

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