Lily Bishop is a dual MBA + MS in Design Innovation (MMM) at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering. As a summer consultant for the National Parks Business Plan Internship (BPI), Lily developed recommendations for the leadership team at Independence National Historical Park (INDE) to optimize use of physical space across all park buildings for employee well-being, operating efficiency, revenue potential, and visitor experience.
We sat down with Lily at the end of the summer to talk about her BPI experience.
PGI: Let’s talk about what drew you initially to this internship, amongst the many options that were available.
Lily: As a huge fan of the National Park Service, both the national parks and historical sites, the BPI was something that seemed like a really unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I never considered working for the government long term, so this seemed like a great chance to try it out and have an experience that I might never get to have again.
On a more professional development related note, I interned at Walt Disney World when I was an undergrad, and I’ve always loved theme parks, and themed experiences. When you think about what the National Park Service does, a big part of it is customer service and experience, but from the lens of conservation and cultural preservation. I thought it would be really interesting to see behind the scenes and understand how that priority of preserving and protecting resources influences the customer experience.
What was the interview process like for you?
I thought the case interview was very interesting and relevant to what the job actually is; you are probably going to have a project that’s structured this same way. I think I do pretty well with problem solving on the fly, so I thought it was fun and because it was fun, I didn’t really find it stressful.
I remember the rest of the process as being very friendly, which fits the “vibe” of the rest of the internship. So, for me, the interview process was an accurate presentation of the interpersonal style and work culture of both PGI and the BPI.
Lily collecting a stamp in her national parks passport at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
What was the orientation training experience like for you, and what were some of your takeaways from that week?
I had a really great experience. I felt that the training prepared me to understand how the NPS operates. I think the BPI leadership does a really good job getting you comfortable with the organization.
I also thought it was really neat to get to meet leadership from both our park sites and from WASO. Up to that point, we had been hearing how this is a very prestigious internship, but when top leaders from the NPS fly out just to be a part of training week, it shows that if you want to have a career with the Park Service, the BPI is serious about setting you up for success.
I think the thing I loved the most was getting to know the rest of the cohort. Because we only had 12 consultants in our cohort, we got pretty tight, and while it’s bittersweet that we go our separate ways, it was so nice to have people to talk to when we were having stressful situations over the summer.
And I know we had bad weather, but also the fact that we got to hike and experience Great Smoky Mountains National Park in our downtime was really special. I don’t think any other internships are doing that.
I know that there are no two weeks alike in the course of the BPI. But if you could create a composite of what a typical week in your summer, what would that have looked like?
A typical week would include doing some kind of research and data collection “in the field”, which for us, was old buildings. My co-consultant and I would visit various spaces across the park and catalog how they were currently being used.
We also collected a lot of information through stakeholder interviews. We talked to people from all departments, spoke with every single supervisor at INDE, and spent a lot of time asking people about their pain points. Ultimately, we were trying to understand how space usage impacted their day to day, and how we could make it better.
We then turned all of the information gathered into insights. This process involved condensing down what we had learned into interesting and thought provoking statements about the challenges related to space use that would inform the basis of our solutioning. We got our hands on a bunch of floor plans, so at one point we were going around filling in whose offices were where, and what would happen if we were to shift some things. I did a lot of mock ups that would help people see what it would be like to transform a space in the ways we were proposing, to visualize our solutions.
An urban park experience is probably not what comes to mind for a lot of people when they’re thinking about this internship, but BPI project sites are hosted in unique locations all across the country. If you were speaking to someone who was placed at an urban park like INDE, what would you tell them in terms of the benefits and drawbacks, compared to a more “traditional” national park unit?
I think the main drawback is you’re not gonna get to hike and be outdoors as much, and that is a bummer, especially when you’re working for the NPS; it’s not really what you imagine your summer looking like. But being in a city was so fun – I got to have so much good food and walk to coffee shops during breaks. I went to the Art Museum and went shopping, and all these things that I would not have been able to do if I had been at the Grand Canyon, for example. Culturally, it was a really cool experience, and I also got to try out a city that I’d never spent much time in. After the BPI, I could see myself living in Philly someday and that was an unexpected surprise. The other benefit for me of the urban park was that it gave me more flexibility outside of work. I did a lot of weekend trips to visit friends on the East Coast, I had a couple times that I had to fly home for a wedding or something, and it was really easy to do that. Those are all reasons why I ranked INDE highly.
The park itself was very unique, too. How tourists interact with an urban park is quite different as they might not even realize it’s a national park unit, and the problems urban parks are solving are often quite different from the more remote parks. Rather than questions of wildlife preservation, for example, you have a lot more questions about tickets and queuing or sanitation and safety. You also get to work with a different population of park rangers and staff. Whereas, we often think of park rangers with a really particular set of knowledge, like biology or conservation, but the INDE team specializes in history, and I learned so much from them.
What are the most valuable skills you developed or honed over the course of the summer?
I wanted to get experience in human centered design, which is a big part of my dual degree. I actually did a project in my first year that was structurally similar to the process that we followed in our project in INDE, but there I had professors and a team and other resources. For the BPI, it was just my co-consultant and I. So, I was trying to lead and also educate about this process and how you write insights using some of these frameworks, which was really great practice. Now, in a class where we’re doing the same thing, I feel way more confident and comfortable. I think that later in my career I’m going to be very confident running design workshops or brainstorming sessions, or writing insights, so I’m really glad to have had that experience through the BPI.
Also, because so much of our research was interviews, I had the opportunity to get better at synthesizing qualitative information and determining what is important and what is not.
Finally, I really enjoyed the experience of getting to work with a lot of autonomy. In my career prior to business school, my work had been managed much more closely, so it was a good growth opportunity to have complete control over the process with my co-consultant. The experience made me a lot more confident in being able to run a project without someone “telling me what to do” because I actually have the skills to do it myself!
Now that the internship is over, how are you thinking now about your future career path? Did the BPI confirm hypotheses you had going into it? Or did it cause a shift in your trajectory?
As a sponsored student, I still plan to return to consulting after completing my degree. I had never considered government consulting before, though, and now I could definitely see myself enjoying working on projects for the government, but with an organization that is more fast-paced and agile. I think overall confirmed the hypothesis that I am more of a corporate person, and that’s okay!
What has been the most valuable aspect of being a BPI Consultant for you?
I think for me, it goes back to what drew me to the opportunity in the first place, which was how unique of an experience it was. The opportunity that I had to live in Independence NHP and go in every single building and explore Independence Hall top to bottom and learn so much about how it operates is really unique. And especially with Independence Hall being such an iconic location, that’s something for the rest of my life, I’ll be able to say, “I worked at the Liberty Bell”. That’s really special.
I also think the experience of working for an organization that I care about so much, first as a consumer/customer/citizen, and now that I’ve been on the other side, seeing how it works behind the scenes. I found it so valuable to be better informed about the National Park Service and other parts of the government that I never really thought about before, like how Congress creates a budget that affects your guest experience at a national park. I can see myself for the rest of my life, continuing to be a very strong advocate for the parks and understanding how I can have a more significant impact.
Any final words of advice or insight that you would give to 1st year students who are considering this internship?
I would say this was a very worthwhile experience, so whether you think it could turn into a career for you or not, don’t let that be a deciding factor. Even if you go in not thinking it will turn into a future career with the National Park Service, you’ll still come away having learned a lot about an incredible organization and developed professional skills that you’ll use for the rest of your life.
To learn more about the Business Plan Internship, please visit purposefulgrowth.org/bpi.