In the fall of 1989, Patrick Carney was dragged "kicking and screaming" into enrolling at Johnson County Community College. He missed his home in Florida, which was just a few feet from the beach - he thought the landlocked Midwest just couldn't compete.

Three years later, Carney graduated after serving two terms as student body president and earning an associate's degree in history and political science, with honors work in Russian history.

"I got so involved in activities," he said. "The more involved I was, the better I did." He credits Dr. Dennis Day, then director of student life, with the impetus. "Dennis would tell me it couldn't be done, so I'd have to go do it," Carney says.

Carney especially remembers the opening of the performing arts spaces in the Carlsen Center, then known as the Cultural Education Center, in 1990. As student body president, he was given tickets to the center's gala opening - a performance by comedian Bill Cosby. He says he "swiped" a brick from the center, and former college president Charles J. Carlsen gave him a framed photo of the CEC. Both are still on display in his home.

During Carney's administration, the Student Senate raised more than $64,000 to help a student afford a heart-lung transplant. "No person, no thing can dictate what you can and can't do," Carney says. "You never know what you can do until you try. I attribute a lot of my success to what I learned at JCCC."

After earning his associate's degree, Carney took a $500 graduation present to pay for bartending school. That training led to jobs that paid his way through Kansas State University and then law school at the University of Kansas. In law school, he knew he wanted to be a prosecutor, so he volunteered to work as an intern in the Johnson County district attorney's office. After three or four months, his supervising attorney gave him a case to work up. By the time he graduated from law school, he had 10 jury trials and more than 150 bench trials under his belt. Most of the opposing attorneys had no idea they were up against an intern.

He stayed with the Johnson County district attorney's office after graduation and spent nine years there, serving as president of the Johnson County Bar Association in 2004-2005. In January 2009, he took on a new role in a new location - assistant U.S. attorney in Birmingham, Ala.

"Throughout my career I've tried to be the guy who took on difficult things," Carney said. "I've never said no to anything until I'd thoroughly examined it. I don't do anything small."