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 Rachel Abendroth, a 2020 NPS BPI alumni, who will walk us through her time throughout the NPS BPI program including the application process, orientation week, her project and her favorite memories of 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 Rachel Abendroth and I am currently a first year MBA at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. I am also a dual degree student with the Ford School of Public Policy. I started my MPP last year and I’ll finish the dual MBA/MPP at the end of 2022. This past summer (2020) I interned with the NPS. Before coming back to school, I spent five years in the direct service nonprofit space, largely working with education nonprofits, youth education, mentoring, and college access programs. I also spent a year at a startup that plans surprise destination vacations in an operations role.

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

The NPS BPI program is a really unique opportunity for students who are passionate about the National Park Service or about public service generally to apply skills, strategies and insights from their professional backgrounds and experiences, as well as their graduate program to really challenging and relevant problems.

NPS BPI interns are asked to develop really tangible solutions that have the opportunity to, in my perspective, deliver real and lasting impact for the agency.

What was the application/interview process like?

I was first alerted to the internship through an information session at the Ford school at the University of Michigan. Sarah Daniels from the Inspiring Capital (IC) team came in and spoke alongside a BPI alum who was also at the University of Michigan. I was obviously very interested, so I talked with a couple of alumni who had both done the program or who had applied and had not continued on to understand their varied perspectives. I applied in December through a written application in which I was asked to talk about my interest in the position, my interest in the Park Service in general and some of the skills that I might bring. In early January there was a video interview, which was primarily behavioral. In mid-January or early February, we moved on to in-person interviews, which had a fit component, but also a case component. Once those interviews wrapped up, I heard back with the invitation to join a few weeks later and the rest is history!

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

I would say that both the BMG and the IC teams were really involved in my summer experience, not least because this was such a non-traditional summer due to COVID-19. First and foremost, there was safety and logistical support from both of those teams. The IC team in particular offered a ton of logistics support around getting ourselves to our sites, housing us safely and in a COVID friendly way and then providing ongoing training and opportunities to connect with our cohorts throughout the summer. I met with my cohort two or three times for professional development sessions, which were great for learning, but also to reconnect with our fellow cohort members that we weren’t seeing in person. They also offered group conversations throughout the summer, which, given our unique circumstances, was an added element of the program.

The BMG offered a ton of support both on a personal and professional level. On the personal side of things, the BMG team helped create a home away from home. They created plenty of opportunities for us to see one another safely. My birthday was in the middle of the summer and my project manager even delivered flowers to my house.

Professionally, you work closely with your BMG project manager. We get a lot of support from them and they act as a great sounding board for our recommendations. They also help with any technical support you need. Thankfully, we didn’t have any conflicts come up, but they would’ve been there to help facilitate had there been any conflicts.

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

After we signed our offer letters, we took a short survey where we detailed some of our preferences and interests to help map out the location and project that would be a good fit. We also detailed our strengths and skills and self-assessed our own competencies and working styles. All of that information fed into who might be a good co-consultant for you, who might be a team lead who can really help you thrive, and what project might be the right fit. Luckily for me, I was paired with two co-consultants, so I was on a team of three.

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

Hands-on: It was not just theoretical learning. We really had the opportunity to put into practice some of the skills that we were going to use over the summer, which was especially helpful for people like me who come from a non-consulting background and needed the opportunity to practice giving a qualitative interview.

Exposure: We had insight and access to attendance systems across the NPS. We also had access to BPI alums who came in and spoke with us during our lunch hours, which was awesome. Even more broadly and impressively, we had folks from across the park service come in at all levels of influence including superintendents and heads of departments.

Mission: Throughout the week we were really reminded of our purpose as a part of the program and also of the National Park Service mission and how our work would directly feed into the mission of the agency. All of us definitely ended the week really eager and excited to get out to our project sites and to help deliver on that mission.

What did your project during the NPS BPI program entail?

I was assigned not to a specific park, but rather to Region Six, Seven and Eight, which includes all the parks that are in that report to the Lakewood or Denver office. These are parks that run from Montana down through to Texas. Alongside my co-consultants, I was working with the regional IT team to help assess the current state of information technology, bandwidth, connectivity, and support service delivery across the 80+ park units in Region Six, Seven and Eight. We delivered a current state assessment and made recommendations to tackle any gaps that existed with regard to bandwidth, connectivity or IT service delivery.

We walked away having given them a few recommendations, and a few tools that would hopefully be useful in the long run including an IT health dashboard and a playbook. The IT health dashboard meant to give stakeholders across all of the products a high-level view of some more objective data about their IT bandwidth, connectivity and support. The playbook was a tool aimed to help park leadership assess their own IT needs and take steps in accordance with where some of their major challenges lie.

Overall, what was your favorite memory of your NPS BPI experience?

Living in Colorado was amazing for so many reasons. Especially in a time when what most of what you can do is go hang out outside, we were really lucky to be in a place where it was so easy and so amazing to do that. We had a lot of weekend adventures, but particularly memorable, was during one of our first weekends in Denver, we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park and we hiked to sky pond, which is an incredible trail. You climb up a flowing waterfall and arrive to a pristine and magical alpine lake. It was a great hike and a really neat opportunity to get to know those of us who were in Denver, and a cool way to connect with the parks early on.

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

On a practical note, I would encourage folks to talk with others who have done the internship. I think it can be really helpful in terms of making sure that the environment is one that will work for you, and that the culture and pace are a good fit. sort of the culture and the pace of the work are a good fit.

I would say it’s an incredible and unparalleled opportunity for students who want to apply really strategic insights and skills to public sector work. I think this is a program that is fast paced, but really lets you walk away saying, “I’ve delivered a tool that can be implemented and can have real impact.” I would recommend it wholeheartedly for anyone who is interested in serving a really incredible mission.

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.