Miss Teen U.S.A. Discusses Her Goals for the Next Year
BILL HEMMER, CNN MORNING NEWS CO-HOST: There is a new Miss Teen U.S.A. now. Her name is Jillian Parry. She's from Newtown, Pennsylvania. Jillian won the crown last weekend. She's got a busy year straight ahead for her, and she's live today in New York. Good morning to you.</s>JILLIAN PARRY, MISS TEEN U.S.A.: Good morning. How are you?</s>HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you very much, and congratulations as well.</s>PARRY: Thank you.</s>HEMMER: In your family you're the third of four girls and you...</s>PARRY: Yes.</s>HEMMER: ... had a very interesting thing growing up. You helped to raise seeing-eye dogs. How did that work?</s>PARRY: Well, we started raising seeing-eye dogs when we saw an article in the newspaper. We were going to get a dog but we didn't know if we could handle the responsibility. So we thought if we raised the dog for a year and it didn't work out, we could give it back. But we fell in love with the program when we tried it, so we raised about 13 dogs...</s>HEMMER: Is that right?</s>PARRY: ... and we're going to raise another one this year.</s>HEMMER: Oh, that's super, good deal. Over the next year I know you're going to be talking a lot and especially to the young kids. What's going to be your message when you go to what's expected to be at least 100 schools over the next 12 months?</s>PARRY: Well, the Miss Teen U.S.A.'s official cause is education and drug-prevention awareness. So I'll be working closely with the D.A.R.E. program, speaking to classrooms around the country.</s>HEMMER: And how old are you?</s>PARRY: I'm 18.</s>HEMMER: You're 18. Headed for college next year, right?</s>PARRY: Yes, I am. I'm a freshman at Penn State this year.</s>HEMMER: All right, good -- Penn State, OK. And what are you studying?</s>PARRY: I'm majoring in biobehavioral health. It's biology, psychology and genetics all rolled into one.</s>HEMMER: What do you think can come out of this, Jillian -- now the fact that you've won and you're off and running?</s>PARRY: Well, I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun but also doing a lot of hard work that will hopefully make a difference for everybody.</s>HEMMER: And what kind of example do you hope to set?</s>PARRY: Definitely a positive role model who believes -- I believe in my cause a lot, so that's what's going to help me the most, because I believe in education, I believe in staying in school, and obviously I believe in staying away from drugs, and I really want to help.</s>HEMMER: All right. And you say you just entered this just for fun...</s>PARRY: Yes</s>HEMMER: ... now you're the winner. That's great. Hey, enjoy your year, congratulations again.</s>PARRY: Thank you. Thank you very much.</s>HEMMER: Jillian Parry, Miss Teen U.S.A., live in New York, thank you.