This month we bid a very fond farewell to E3’s Super Interns, Kat and Adam, two crazy kids who have been of immeasurable value to E3 for many years.

Kat came to us five years ago as a mere child – a recent USN high school graduate whose experiences as an AP Environmental Sciences student and the daughter of an E3 customer collided, deafening her with the message that improving the environment by increasing home efficiency was her calling in life. She has worked with us every summer since while earning her degree from MTSU in environmental science, with a minor in construction management.

In the early days, Kat gained exceptional experience in the field, performing caulking and other detailed air sealing work. When her organizational prowess and skills as an Excel wizard were exposed, she was quickly reassigned to office work, making good on Erik’s wild promises to customers. She also has been pretty darn good with sales calls, infecting prospects with her youthful optimism for a more sustainable world. After graduation, she plans to get a master’s degree, but first she wants additional job experience and hopes to do that in the Pacific Northwest. An avid reader, Kat loves to refurbish old furniture and home décor items. She’s also handy with wood working equipment and a formidable strategy gamer.

Summer won’t be the same without you, Kat! Your organizational insanity has been like that camp counselor who seems like a drill sergeant, but without her, camp would have been chaotic and scary and too much like Lord of the Flies.

Adam is completing his third summer with us as he enters his senior year at Tennessee Tech, where he is earning his degree in mechanical engineering. A native of Boulder, Colorado, Adam has been a fan of the environment all his life. He even delayed college “until it wasn’t cute anymore” so that he could visit most of the world’s environments. He’s slept in tents, friends’ couches, even his own minivan, which served as his home for a while and was the vehicle that brought him through Nashville one fateful day in 2005. He hadn’t planned to stay, he said, but he “really liked it.”

After an internship with the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, he met Erik, who promised him work where he could use his hands, his brain and his charm. No doubt, Adam has proved skillful in all these areas, and no doubt, whoever gets Adam as an employee after graduation will be fortunate indeed! Adam’s talents and interests are endless – no wonder he didn’t have time for college for 12 years. He likes to camp, build furniture, restore classic cars, renovate old homes and create cool things out of scraps and reclaimed items. He played piano in a band, worked in a radio station, and he installed a hammock in the E3 offices, where he does all his deep thinking.

We will miss you, Adam – your positive attitude and can-do spirit have made summers here like we remember them as kids – sunny and endlessly entertaining!