Student Jessica Cox Determination Helps Her Look Beyond A Physical Problem To Possibilities.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: M. Susan Basas

For 18-year-old Jessica Cox, achievement isn't within arm's reach. It's within foot's reach.

Like other teens, she loves dancing and just got her driver's permit. Only she uses her right foot to steer and her left for the brake and accelerator.

Born without arms, Cox does everything with her feet. She writes her essays for English class, curls her hair, cooks and taps e-mail out on the computer. Atop student, the Tucson, Ariz., resident also spends a huge chunk of her time doing community service.

For all her achievements, Cox recently won the Crystal Apple Award, given bythe Tucson Metropolitan Education Commission. Community involvement, grades and overcoming obstacles are criteria.

Doctors have no explanation for her lack of arms. But as a child, Cox never thought she was physically different, her mother Inez says. "She enjoyed playing with her dolls, combing their hair with her foot. She would carry them around with her neck." And later, when Inez Cox told her daughter she was different, Jessica wasn't bothered.

"When I was little, people would say, "Oh, you're disabled,' " Cox said. "And I would tell them, "Oh, I can do everything you can do.' "