Cammie Moore is a second year graduate student at Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, pursuing a Masters of Environmental Management.
Isabel (Izzy) Kannegeiser is a second-year MBA at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business.
Cammie and Izzy spent their BPI summer at Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area designing a river use permit structure to optimize visitor experience, resource protection, and revenue generation for the park units.
They joined us at the end of the summer to reflect on their internship experience.
PGI: What initially drew you to this internship?
Izzy: I had been scrolling my school’s career services page and did a double take when I saw this opportunity. I thought, “Wait, there’s no way there’s an internship that’s business in the park service – this is too good to be true”. At the time, I knew that I didn’t want to do the traditional consulting or investment banking internships that a lot of my classmates were doing and I really wanted to push myself in ways that I hadn’t before in my previous work in tech. The BPI seemed like a really great way to step outside my comfort zone and do something different – work in a completely different sector, in a place I’d never been, with people I didn’t know. It just seemed like a lot of boundaries were going to be pushed for me in a way that I was really excited about and was looking for as part of my internship experience. So it checked a lot of boxes from the onset.
Cammie: I first heard about the internship through an email sent by our career office and initially thought, “This sounds perfect!” Then a friend also sent it to me and validated my initial reaction by saying “This sounds perfect for you!” I think it combined my passions of data-driven work, environmental protection, and getting people outside. I love the National Park Service mission and wanted to be a part of that for a summer and maybe for the future.
What are the most valuable skills you gained or honed?
Cammie: A few things come to mind for me. The first one is more quantitative – I got to put into practice things I had learned in school, like financial modeling or statistical analysis of campsite congestion. So, it was really fun to have the opportunity to develop those skills through hands-on application. The second one was actually something that Izzy helped me so much, which was learning how to pick out the most important pieces of information and effectively communicate them in our storytelling. It was also really cool to manage a project from start to finish and have influence on how it would play out. I think learning the ins and outs of project management, whether that’s scoping properly or setting a timeline, will prove helpful in my next job.
Izzy: The project definitely pushed me from a quantitative perspective, which is something I wasn’t expecting, but that I’m really proud of. And I agree with Cammie about the storytelling piece. In my first year here at Tuck, we took a whole course on public speaking and communicating well, essentially answering the question, “how do you disseminate information in a way that makes sense to a particular audience?” Over the summer, we really had to put this into practice, and frame recommendations in a way that spoke to more than just business concerns. Trying to strike that balance was challenging, but I think we did a good job. It was nice to apply some of those skills that I had learned in school and thought I’d never use!
What was the most valuable aspect of being a BPI consultant?
Izzy: For me, it was feeling like I was making a difference every day. I spent six years in the private sector before grad school and our objective was always making more money, increasing our revenue, or doubling down on the bottom line. This was the first time in my career where it was about so much more than making money. I felt really aligned with the mission of protecting the resources and increasing access for people, and that was very motivating.
Cammie: I would say the chance to own and develop a project from start to finish, developing new skills in a new place and having the autonomy to do that kind of independent project management. Also the chance to have these really unique experiences, like go on a rafting trip or ride the park plane, all in a beautiful place was another huge perk for me.
How did your internship experience influence your career path? How has the internship set you up for your next career move?
Cammie – For me, the BPI made me realize how much I really do enjoy data analysis and how I can make a career of that in the Park Service. I’m taking a few more GIS classes now and am planning to get my GIS certificate so that I could potentially specialize in that. The internship really helped me to narrow down what I enjoy in work, and how to prepare myself for roles that utilize those skills and specialities.
Izzy – Like Cammie, I’m also very interested in a long term career with the Park Service now, which is not something I probably would have said a year ago had you asked me. But more broadly, I think the internship opened my eyes to the ways that I can apply my degree to a world beyond the private sector. Prior to the BPI, I didn’t fully appreciate all of the opportunities in the public sector for a business mind like an MBA. So, that new awareness of the interesting business challenges that exist within the NPS and what’s possible with an MBA was one of the more pleasantly surprising and rewarding aspects of this experience.
What final words of advice or insight would you give to other graduate students interested in this experience?
Izzy – Do it! You will not regret it. I talked to a lot of BPI alumni before making my decision, and asked, “if you could go back, would you do it again?” and they all said, a hundred times over. I think we can say that even now when things are challenging for the Park Service, we still had an incredible experience and want to go back and work for them. So, if anything, our experience is a testament to how great this program is. I’d encourage people not to worry about anything happening externally and take advantage of the opportunity to work for an organization that is an amazing part of what makes America great.
Cammie – I completely agree! The other piece of advice that we got during orientation that I would now echo is to say yes to everything while you’re there. If they ask you to go on a resource inventory trip? Say yes. Do you want to go do something unique to the area? Say yes. Take full advantage of the experience and all it has to offer.