UTC alum Emily Patton announced as Schorr Internship recipient

Emily Patton, a May 2024 graduate and Brock Scholar who earned bachelor’s degrees in environmental science and humanities: international studies, is the first recipient of WaterWays’ Schorr Internship. Photo by Angela Foster.

On Friday, Feb. 21, WaterWays—a Chattanooga-area nonprofit—announced Emily Patton as the first recipient of the Schorr Internship in honor of the late Dr. Mark Schorr, a professor in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science.

Schorr was a member of the UTC faculty from 1994 to 2022. His teaching focused primarily on stream fish ecology, emphasizing the importance of water pollution issues and population/community ecology.

He was known for his hands-on teaching style, and one of the many organizations he worked with was WaterWays to educate communities on restoration projects in the local community.

WaterWays is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “empower communities to protect and restore the waterways where we live, work and play.”

Mary Beth Sutton, the founder and executive director of WaterWays, hosted a “DIY Stream Bank Repair” event at Chattanooga’s Heritage Park to educate and demonstrate the techniques involved in stream bank repair. Additionally, the event was used to introduce Patton as the Schorr Internship recipient.

Patton, a May 2024 graduate and Brock Scholar who earned bachelor’s degrees in environmental science and humanities: international studies, will explore the nonprofit’s operating procedure and business culture.

“WaterWays does a lot—including education, restoration events, fundraising and grant writing,” Patton explained. “It’s every type of way you could learn about how a nonprofit operates in the environmental field, but also just communications beyond the science.

“There’s a lot of interaction and community that comes with it. I get to do a little bit of everything, which is really cool. I get to get in the streams—which is great—but I can also meet people in the community to network and work on other projects.”

Sutton, also a UTC alum, said WaterWays wanted to pay tribute to Schorr by creating the internship program.

“We want to honor Mark with what he empowered others to do by his teaching and passion,” Sutton said. “The best thing to do is when we’re taking positive action for a stream to restore the biodiversity that he cared about and measured and taught about every day of his life. And that’s what WaterWays is all about.”

Holly Schorr remembered the times her husband would work in rain, sleet or snow and how committed he was to his work—while standing in the 20-degree February weather.

“It’s just an honor to be here and to represent Mark for this special honor for Emily Patton to be the first intern,” she said. “I knew (Emily) as a young child and her family. It makes it all come almost full circle for me and it’s somebody that I know who will do a great job.”

Schorr, Sutton and Patton emphasized the importance of announcing the internship while actively teaching about environmental restoration.

“It speaks to his legacy and I think it speaks to how authentic of a man he was,” Patton said. “The people that knew him and loved him knew how he would want to live on and be remembered.”