A Day in the Life of a National Park Business Plan Intern (NPS BPI)

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 Snigdha Rao, a 2020 NPS BPI alumni, who will walk us through a typical day during the NPS BPI program. She talks to us about what initially drew her to apply, the skills she gained during the 11-week internship and her biggest takeaways from the experience.

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

My name is Snigdha Rao. I’m a second year MBA student at Yale School of Management (SOM). I did the NPS BPI this past Summer 2020 at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, MA. Prior to SOM, I was working in management consulting for about four years. I decided that with my internship during business school, I wanted to try something a little bit different and explore the nonprofit or government space. The BPI internship was top of mind for me. I am still figuring out what I will be doing after business school, but I love the consulting function. I think the BPI program verified my love for consulting. I want to try it in a different industry, so I’m hoping to continue to explore options this year.

What initially drew you to the NPS BPI and why did you ultimately decide to do it instead of other internship opportunities?

I knew that I wanted to do something different with my business school experience. I wanted to explore the social impact, nonprofit and government spaces. I had never worked in that space before, and I had mostly worked with commercial clients. I chose to do this internship because of my interest in exploring different industries.

For me, as a risk averse person, this was an easy way to pivot into a new industry I was interested in, while still being able to apply my consulting skillset.

I had also heard such great things about this internship from previous BPI alumni. This program has a really strong network and reputation. It is well-structured and well-established; everyone is very invested in the interns’ success, which was important for me.

What did your project during the NPS BPI program entail?

My project was at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, MA. I was able to go onsite, which was special given the current environment with COVID-19. Our project was a leasing strategy project. For our project we had to analyze Minute Man’s structures and assets and figure out if there was a way to use the empty buildings to generate revenue from them.

My co-consultant and I looked at all of these historical builds that were not necessarily open all year and saw a lot of opportunity to lease them out. There was a broad range of possibilities (leasing out to families and individuals or even turning them into affordable housing). At the end of the project we worked with a local real estate agent to value the houses. We also worked with different areas of the NPS to understand the cost of bringing up an old historical house to a reasonable standard for someone to lease and live in. As we got further into the project, we ended up aligning on about eight houses that we thought Minute Man should lease out in the next five years. We built out a timeline of when they should lease out certain houses depending on their cost and the amount of revenue they would bring in. After five years we projected that Minute Man would be able to be self-sustaining with the leasing strategy in place. At the end of the internship we had the opportunity to present our plan to the controller of the National Parks Service.

What are the most valuable skills you gained while working with your client?

My co-consultant and I had very different skillsets, but we complemented each other really well. I think the BPI does this on purpose to make sure everyone gets a holistic view of the problem. Because I had come from a consulting background, I felt really comfortable in Excel and PowerPoint, but I did learn a lot about client relationship management.

I learned a lot about how the National Park Service is a relationship driven organization. Although I knew what my project plan was, it did not necessarily mean that everyone would be on board with me. Thus, it was really important to build those relationships by talking to people, which became even more important in the pandemic. Ultimately, I learned the importance of making sure you’re continuing to build personal connections instead of blindly driving towards an end goal.

Walk me through a typical day during the program?

Our days were very flexible. My co-consultant and I would usually wake up around nine. Because of the pandemic we wouldn’t go into the office every day. Usually we would sit on our porch with our laptops, which was lovely. We would usually start by making sure we were on the same page in terms of what we were both working on, and what we wanted to get done by the end of the day.

Our days changed throughout the project. At the beginning of the summer we had many more site visits, so there would be days in which we’d spend the entire day looking at different buildings and taking notes. Usually, however, we would have a lot of conversations, we would then go off and work separately and come back together at the end of the day to wrap up the project or the workstream.

What was it like working with your co-consultant? How did your skillsets complement one another on your project?

I’m actually seeing her later today if that’s any indication of how close we got!

I think our skillsets were complimentary in every single way.

We had different educational backgrounds; she was a Public Policy Master’s student and I am an MBA student. Professionally, she had come from working in the nonprofit foundation space, whereas I had come from the commercial consulting space. We had both done work with project management, but in different ways, so it was really helpful to understand how she organized informational interviews. We worked closely together on client relationship management. We were a unified front and were very closely aligned, which I think was critical to making the summer a success.

What were your biggest takeaways during your NPS BPI experience?

The biggest takeaway for me was realizing how an MBA degree could be used in an organization like the National Parks Service to the extent that it was.

It was really eye opening for me to see how a national park functioned and how my skills as a business school student could be applied to help the park be more sustainable and efficient. I think there is a lot of value in integrating these different spaces.

During our week of training it was also amazing to connect with the 16 other interns who were like-minded and wanted to make a positive impact on society with their degree. I was able to build a network with my peers, which I think is really important as we’re trying to find where to work in the social impact space.

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.