4 Skills I Gained During my Summer with the National Parks Service as a Business Plan Intern

The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government that manages all U.S. national parks, many American national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. The NPS is charged with a dual role of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management while also making them available and accessible for public use and enjoyment.

The National Parks Business Plan Internship (BPI) is an 11-week consulting internship available for graduate students who are currently enrolled in business, public policy, environmental management, public administration, and related programs with one year left until graduation. Participants work in a national parks or National Park Service regional office across the country where they lead strategic projects that impact the long-term health of these vital American resources.

Today we are interviewing Daniel Ryave, a 2019 NPS BPI alumni about the skills he learned during his summer with the National Parks Service and how they set him up for success in his next career move.

Tell us about yourself! What is your name, university and program that you attended, your BPI year and your professional career?

My name is Daniel Ryave and I was a part of the 2019 NPS BPI class. I went to Carnegie Mellon University. I got an MBA from the Tepper School of Business and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Heinz College of Information Science and Public Policy.

Before I found the BPI program, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. I came into grad school with a really unique and non-traditional background. It was hard for me to find an internship that matched up with both my mission and values and the skills I wanted to gain. The BPI was perfect and gave me exactly what I was looking for. It was a mission-driven internship that would also let me foray into the consulting world that I was unfamiliar with. Now I’m working as an internal consultant for a healthcare company in Pittsburgh.

What did your project entail (Please note the project problem, key learnings, and solution)?

During the program I was at Redwood National and State Parks working on workforce and budget reorganization. At the time, budgets were decreasing and costs were increasing. We were tasked with coming up with a new workforce for the future budget. The project was catered around human capital and making sure all of the Division Chiefs were still able to meet their goals in a constrained budget environment.

It was very challenging, especially for someone without a consulting background, because there were many constraints and we had a very wide problem statement. However, we had amazing support throughout the project from the entire BMG team and the acting Superintendent at Redwood. They treated us like part of the Redwood family and not like outside consultants.

I was able to grow so much on this project because the internship was structured in a way that lets every intern grow in whatever way they see fit. I always had a good work-life balance and I got to feel like I was doing something meaningful by driving the way the work looked.

What are the most valuable skills you gained while working with your client? Can you please give context to how you learned/gained each skill?

Scoping a project and creating a work plan

With the help of my co-consultant, the park staff and the BMG, I left the internship being able to take a challenge or problem statement and then formulate it into a 10-week plan, which was something I didn’t have experience doing before. I currently work on very similar short-term, broad problems and I now have the ability to dissect the problem and structure a plan within a specific time frame.

Defining goals and achieving them

As a BPI, I gained the ability to define goals and then achieve them. During the beginning of the internship, I looked at the problem statement and had no idea where to start. My co-consultant who had a consulting background knew exactly what to do and would walk me through the steps we needed to take to define and then achieve a concrete goal. We were able to set goals by conducting interviews and costs analyses. Once we did that, we could focus on figuring out how to meet those goals.

Interviewing

Another skill that I gained is the ability to interview someone in a work setting. We spent a lot of time structuring questions and follow ups in order to maximize people’s time because everyone at the park is very busy during the summer. We wanted to make sure we were using everyone’s time really well, and that we were being as thoughtful as possible. I learned how to ask the right questions in order to get the information we needed. On a personal level, I learned how to be assertive without being aggressive, which is something I’ve always struggled with. I really learned how to advocate for myself in a professional way.

Facilitating a good meeting

The last skill I learned was how to facilitate a good meeting. We were on such a time crunch with people within the park, and we were only going to get them in a room twice over 10 weeks. In those two times, it was really important for us to maximize the benefit of those meetings. I learned how to determine the specific information that needed to be shared and how to encourage people to do pre-work or post-work so that they didn’t spend time doing it during the meeting.

How have any of these skills deemed transferable and set you up for your next career move?

When I was interviewing for summer internship jobs between my first and second year of grad school, a lot of interviewers’ feedback to me was that I sounded unpolished. I was eager, but unprepared. After having had the BPI experience, when I was interviewing for full time positions, that problem was completely gone. I was able to say that I drove a full consulting project. Many of my peers with years of consulting experience had not even reached the level to do what I had done. People can still see the passion and enthusiasm that I have, but now I also sound purposeful and skilled when presenting myself.

What were your biggest takeaways during your NPS BPI experience?

I came out of the experience with an immense appreciation for the National Park Service; the people who work at the parks are incredible. Every single one of them could quit tomorrow and get a job in the private sector that pays more, but they choose to stay because the work they do is so meaningful. I walked away with an appreciation for not just the places, but the people as well.

I also left with a sense of confidence that I could be a consultant. After receiving rejection emails in my first year, I kept thinking consulting was maybe a wrong fit for me. Consulting wasn’t the wrong fit; I was just a wrong fit for a role that didn’t matter to me. Getting to do something that mattered to me and being able to flex this skillset that I was building, showed me that it was the right fit, but I needed to carve out the right place.

I also came away with so many friends from the program. All the BPI consultants got very close throughout the summer and during our week of training. I also got very close with the park staff. I lived with a Park Ranger and someone who was volunteering for a forestry project and the three of us became very close. The park staff that I worked with really took me in as one of their own. I reflect on this experience so fondly and am so grateful for it.

Inspiring Capital is a NYC-based B Corp that offers learning and development services for professionals and organizations. Inspiring Capital’s mission is to guide people to meaningful lives. IC exists to give others the permission, invitations, tools, guidance, inspiration, and accountability that we all want and need to grow purposefully toward our wholehearted potential. So that, together, we can build healthier, fairer, more inclusive, equitable, just, and regenerative teams, organizations, societies, and economies.

Learn more about Inspiring Capital here.

Learn more about NPS BPI here.

Interested applying for the Summer 2021 NPS BPI program? Click here!

Watch an Informational Webinar on YouTube on all logistics of the Summer 2021 NPS BPI program here.