My name is Erin Kim, and I am a rising junior at Carnegie Mellon University, where I am studying Chemical Engineering. I have been involved in research since my sophomore year of high school so when I discovered APPRISE’s summer research program, I was interested in applying my research skills to a new field of study: policy research. Before joining APPRISE, I knew very little about policy research or the programs that utility companies offer their customers. Once I developed a better understanding of the energy efficiency programs we were studying, I felt that my work had a tangible impact on improving these programs across New Jersey.

This summer, I had the opportunity to work on energy efficiency programs offered by Atlantic City Electric and New Jersey Natural Gas. For both companies, I worked on their Whole Home Energy Assessment program and their income qualified Home Weatherization program. I also worked on New Jersey Natural Gas’s Whole Home Energy Solutions program and Atlantic City Electric’s Direct Install program. The common thread across all these programs is providing energy-efficient upgrades to homes and businesses at little to no cost. Through phone calls, I conducted one-on-one surveys with participants to learn about their experiences with the programs, gathering information on what work was done, how well participants understood the programs, how homes or businesses changed, how their energy bills may have shifted, and more. While it was rewarding to hear participants’ positive experiences, especially when improvements were made for those who could not have afforded the work otherwise, I found it oddly more satisfying when I would convince an unhappy participant to answer the survey questions. In those moments, I felt I was giving them a chance to vent their frustrations while also gathering critical qualitative information on the program’s gaps.

Since I have only worked on research in an academic setting until now, working in a corporate environment was a wonderful new experience. During my time at APPRISE, I learned so much from several mentors who were kind, supportive, and open from day one. Erica and Irena in particular were always happy to answer all my questions, guiding me on how to best conduct calls, manage scheduling, and apply new formulas in Excel. They never made me feel afraid to ask for help or clarification which I am extremely grateful for as it helped me learn far more, far quicker.

My main takeaway from this summer was the importance of consistency, empathy, and thinking on your feet. Calling people for feedback can be difficult, especially when they are frustrated with a program. In those cases, it was important to figure out how to best reach them and make them feel heard, and, in the age of AI, to prove I was a real person on the other end of the line. In the end, those calls turned out to be the most rewarding and the most important for making real progress on the projects I worked on. I am extremely grateful to APPRISE for a wonderful summer, one that gave me new skills to carry forward in my career and connected me with amazing people.

Written by: Erin Kim, Summer 2026 Research Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University Class of 2028