"The most difficult obstacle for me was deciding to leave Clarksville. I had always lived in Tennessee and was eager to explore, but hesitant to leave," says Melissa (Missy) Carroll ('94).

Gutsy girl that she was, after two years in the newsroom of Clarksville's "The Leaf-Chronicle," she swallowed back butterflies and hit the road. Since that day in 1996, she's logged more miles and experienced more of life than many people ever do.

Her first stop was Charleston, S.C., where she worked for AmeriCorps, a domestic Peace Corp program. The first year in AmeriCorps, she worked on a team assigned to such projects as trail-building in national parks, providing educational activities in public schools and converting a crack house into a police substation.

During her second year, she was hired as AmeriCorps media coordinator for the Southeast Region, coordinating news coverage of corps projects and working with media in 10 states. According to Carroll, AmeriCorps not only was a "wonderful and patriotic experience," but it also provided an educational stipend that paid her undergraduate loans with a bit left for graduate school.

But what graduate school? Her decision was based partially on a secret desire--to work for the FBI someday. Since her days as cops reporter for "The Leaf-Chronicle," she has been intrigued by law enforcement. As a reporter, she learned the police codes and how to decipher the police scanner. She says, "I sensed law enforcement could be an exciting and challenging career but, at the time, it didn't seem feasible for me."

During her stint with AmeriCorps, she worked with a sheriff's department in South Carolina. What had been a tingle when she was on the cops beat in Clarksville became an itch. She says, "Then I met an FBI recruiter at an APSU career fair--of all places! Get this--I was assigned to this career fair by AmeriCorps out of South Carolina. I wasn't even living in Tennessee at the time!"

She kept his promotional material, reading it repeatedly for the next 18 months. The itch intensified. She says, "When I looked at graduate schools, I tried to decide on one that would further my chances of working for the FBI.

"I was researching public policy schools, and Pepperdine had a new program. I thought it would be exciting to be a part of a master's degree program I could help shape. Pepperdine has a sound (academic) reputation, and they offered me a partial scholarship.

"Plus, I had never lived on the West Coast. You ask, 'why Pepperdine?' It's incredibly scenic. And according to the Chinese, beautiful places inspire knowledge."

While visiting Pepperdine in her search for the best graduate program, she met a student participating in the FBI Honors Internship. She says, "That was a good sign. From that moment, I tried to position myself to be a reasonable candidate."

She enrolled in Pepperdine's program in public policy in Fall 1998. In Summer 1999, she returned east to Washington, D.C., (you guessed it) as an FBI intern.

She says, "I got a little anxious because I had to apply through the LA field office--one of the country's largest and with a large applicant pool. After the tedious application process, which included a polygraph and extensive background check, I was assigned to the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs-National Press Office."

As an intern she assisted the FBI's public affairs specialists in fielding national media. She set up a "Forbes" magazine interview and helped gather research for a "New York Times" reporter. "I was in heaven. Everyday was an adventure. I loved showing up at the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

"The first big press conference was one for the director, Louis Freeh. He announced the FBI was sending a deployment to Kosovo to investigate war crimes--the first such mission of its kind. Our office handled all the logistics of that major news event."

During the summer, Carroll was involved with several other significant FBI stories, including Railway Killer Rafael Raminez's surrender and coverage of Chinese espionage.

Carroll also developed an FBI Crisis Media Plan, a coordinated effort with federal, state and local agencies in the event of a major crisis, such as the World Trade Center bombing. She says, "The FBI is the lead agency if a major event like that occurs. My media plan outlines the command post details; it is an activation plan for media response."

As Carroll wraps up her master's degree at Pepperdine, she is pursuing non-agent positions at the national FBI Headquarter in D.C., possibly returning to the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs. She says, "Public policy seems to drive that city, and I love the energy of its people."

Since she first left Clarksville in 1996 to join AmeriCorps, Carroll has visited all but 11 of the United States and has driven coast to coast three times.

She says, "My perspective has switched from one in which I was waiting for something to happen to making it happen."

You go, girl!