Hi all! My name is Rhea Choudhury and I’m currently pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School. I was lucky enough to work for the National Park Service (NPS) this summer as a Business Plan Internship (BPI) Consultant with the Submerged Resources Center (SRC). The SRC is the NPS’ national dive program, responsible for documentation, research, and maintenance of shipwrecks, reefs, downed WWII planes, boat docks, and everything in between. My role was to help them design a more sustainable operating and funding model to ensure their long-term viability within the park service.

Before I began my first year at HBS, I was a medical device engineer working on products for the OR and the ICU. This work inspired my passion for access and equity in healthcare, but I was not quite sure how to translate this interest into my future career.

Annika Roise is a second-year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. As a BPI Consultant, Annika developed an asset utilization and prioritization process for vacant and underutilized buildings at Point Reyes National Seashore, to enable the park to implement a long-term investment/divestment strategy. 

She joined us at the end of the summer to reflect on her experience. 

What drew you to this internship?
I think what initially drew me to the BPI was just seeing ‘National Park Service’ on the MIT job board and thinking how different a public sector opportunity was next to all the other internships. When I looked a little bit more at the role itself, though, I was drawn to the fact that it would allow me to use the skills acquired from my consulting background, but in the context of a new industry and getting some government exposure. I was also really interested in pursuing general social impact or public service-related work, so that aspect was also appealing.