Everything You Need to Know about the National Park Service Business Plan Internship (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 Christopher Wang, a 2019 NPS BPI alumni, who gives us an overview of the NPS BPI program including the application process, orientation week and his experience working on a project with his co-consultant throughout the summer.

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

My name is Chris Wang. I was in the MBA program at Yale SOM and I graduated in 2019. I also did the NPS BPI program in the summer of 2019. Before starting my MBA, I worked in economic consulting for several years and now I’m at a strategy economic consulting firm.

How would you describe the NPS BPI program and the role the program plays in the NPS?

The NPS BPI program is a great chance for students to live and work at a national park and to work on a real business problem that is key to that park’s operations and service as a whole.

The program is run by the Business Management Group (BMG), which is an amazing group of about 6–7 people who identify and work on these business problems either at specific park units or across the entire National Park Service.

What was the application/interview process like?

There’s a written part of the application, which is a great chance to explain some of the skills that you bring and why you are interested in working with the National Park Service. After the written portion, there is a recorded video interview round with specific behavioral type questions. Then there is a final round case interview with one of the members of the BMG. In this interview you walk through the case and then talk through a few behavioral questions. It is a great chance to brainstorm and think through the different ways in which you would approach a specific problem.

How would you describe the role of the Business Management Group (BMG) and the Inspiring Capital Team in your summer?

The BMG was a really great resource throughout the summer. Every BPI team (teams of 2–3 BPI consultants) works closely with one member of the BMG who provides support and acts as a mentor throughout the entire summer. We had weekly scheduled calls with our BMG mentor we were working with as well as one-on-one meetings to chat about how things were going.

One of the great things about the BMG is that the members of the team are all different and work on different consulting projects. There is a lot of opportunity to chat with the other BMG members as well, either about the specific problems your park is facing or just generally about life and career progression. They are all very accessible and willing to be resources to any and all BPIs during the summer. They all are rooting for your success.

The Inspiring Capital (IC) team was amazing too. We had training sessions with IC throughout the summer to talk about mindfulness and personal and professional growth. You mainly work with your co-consultant(s), whereas IC sessions were always great opportunities to come together and to see the other members of the BPI program too. In these instances of being together as a whole cohort, you’re reminded of the incredible opportunity we have to do something really fun, but also to make a big impact.

What was the process in working with the BMG to assign you a park/project and a co-consultant?

After our final round interview, the BMG laid out the preliminary list of the parks and the projects they had available that summer. We then had a welcome session and a video call in which we could meet our other NPS BPI cohort members. We were then given a survey to fill out to rank the different projects that we were interested in and to describe why we thought we’d be a good fit for that’s specific problem. We also had to rank and list different living habits and preferences. They used that survey to assign parks based on preference and to match us with compatible co-consultants.

If you had to describe the first week of orientation in three words, what would those be and why would you choose them?

Camaraderie: We were in the Grand Canyon for our orientation week that year. It was great being able to get to the park and meet the members of the BMG as well as the 16 other BPI interns. I loved getting to talk to people who were interested in the same things that I am and who really cared about the NPS service and mission. It was interesting to hear and learn about everyone’s backgrounds and all the cool things that they had done in the past.

Learning: There is so much to take in and the BMG team is very experienced since they have been working at the NPS for a long time. They are so knowledgeable about how the parks run. There are so many behind the scenes things that happen at these parks that you would never know about if you were not a part of the NPS, so there is a lot to take away in terms of how the parks operate, how budgets are allocated, how the workforce is planned and just how things happen. We also had the opportunity to speak to the members of the Grand Canyon leadership team who taught us about some of the challenges they were facing in terms of safety and logistics.

Awe-Inspiring: It was my first time being at the Grand Canyon and was incredible seeing how majestic and big it is. But also, being able to hear about the challenges and problems the people who live and breathe the national parks face was amazing. Park leadership is really focused on both making sure visitor experiences are safe, fun and enjoyable, while protecting the park’s resources. There was so much to take in and it was a really amazing place to be in.

What did your project during the NPS BPI program entail?

My co-consultant, Molly, and I were at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio and we were working on a commercial services strategy for them. In other words, we were looking at their existing commercial services and any potential new commercial services. In this case, these services were specifically bike rentals, kayak rentals, and scenic train rides in the park. We had to consider things like revenue, potential maintenance costs, safety, visitor experience, environmental protection, standards, and park mission among others to see how we could properly authorize these services and make them available throughout the park.

There were a few key actions that we took. One of them was conducting interviews with park employees to help get an understanding of their priorities, pain points and ultimate vision of what they wanted the park to be.

Another key action was understanding how these services would operate within the park. This was cool because it meant renting bikes or having a park ranger take us on a guided kayak tour down the river in order to look for hazards that would have to be taken care of. We also rode the train that went through the park to speak to volunteers and the staff there. We hosted a public meeting for 30–40 members of the local community, in which we presented the different existing and potential commission services. It was really important for us to get their feedback on the kinds of things they were looking for in the park.

The final deliverable was a commercial services strategy document laying out recommendations and timelines for implementation of the different services. We also created a financial model over the summer to map out the feasibility of some of these services.

Overall, what was your favorite memory of your NPS BPI experience and your least favorite part of the NPS BPI experience?

I have a few favorite memories, but one that really stood out was when we had a park ranger take us on that guided kayak down the Cuyahoga River. We had been wanting to go all summer, but it rained a lot that year so the water levels were dangerous for people to go down the river. When we finally went down, it was a really cool way to experience the park and it gave us a completely different perspective than when we had just hiked down it.

My least favorite part would probably be when we had to move out of our housing in the last week because they found E coli in our drinking water. However, those surrounding us handled it really well and were very accommodating and apologetic. It wasn’t anyone’s fault; other than that there really wasn’t much to complain about!

What advice would you give a graduate student interested in the NPS BPI opportunity?

I’d say go for it. It’s a really fun experience, and it’s such a great learning opportunity.

I really got to stretch myself and think about how to apply some of the financial analysis skills and critical thinking skills to a problem that I really cared about. Also, nothing beats living in a national park. Having housing within the park, waking up within the park, and being able to step right outside and go on a hike or hop on a kayak is a pretty incredible experience.

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.