Shatakshi Shekhar is a second year MBA candidate at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Shatakshi’s BPI project was to analyze the financial and operational sustainability of Song Dog, a native plant nursery at Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LAKE). Along with her co-consultant, Shatakshi developed recommendations to help LAKE better recover costs from partner agencies, improve documentation to reduce institutional knowledge loss, formalize volunteer and partner collaboration structures, and reduce administrative burden. The LAKE pair also developed recommendations to help the national native plants materials program develop a national nursery network to foster knowledge sharing and highlighted best practices to help nurseries nationwide make better informed decisions. We caught up with Shatakshi at the end of the summer to debrief her experience.
PGI: Among all of the possible internship options available to you last year, what drew you to the BPI?
Shatakshi Shekhar: There were a few things that I was looking for in an internship that I found in the BPI.
The first component was an impact lens. I wanted to be in a community that was very purposeful, and work with folks that were very intentional about creating social or environmental impact, so I was drawn to the National Park Service because of their work to preserve natural resources.
The second component was an opportunity to use my MBA skill set. I have been trying to focus on finance and operations throughout the course of my degree program and I thought the BPI would afford me the opportunity to apply what I was learning and build experience specific to those functions.
And then, finally, was the public sector component. I had considered working for the federal government after undergrad, but took the private sector route at that time. Now, during my MBA, I wanted to explore what it would be like to work for a federal agency.
Tell me a little bit about what orientation was like for you, and what you took away from that week.
Orientation was very helpful, and I left that experience feeling empowered and important. I especially enjoyed spending time with the rest of the cohort. We bonded so quickly and expanding my MBA network across schools was really valuable to me. It was also meaningful to meet other professionals, from PGI, the BMG, and park leadership, both at the Smokies and the national, WASO-level.
Practicing sun safety at the Lake
What did your summer look like week to week?
Each week would start off by defining what success might look like by the end of that week, because each one looked a bit different and had a different priority. So, for example, one week was focused on key stakeholder interviews. Another week was heavy on data analysis. I think that was part of the beauty of the internship, there was always something new to look forward to!
What skills did you have the opportunity to develop or strengthen as a BPI Consultant?
One of my goals had been to develop more experience related to finance and operations and I definitely had that opportunity. I was excited by the opportunity to further develop key stakeholder management and interpersonal skills overall. It was surprising to learn how many people had a stake and opinion in our recommendations, so that gave us many opportunities to practice influence and manage expectations with stakeholders at all levels, which I found fulfilling. Those are skills that you can’t really learn from a textbook, so I was glad to get to practice those a bit more.
What was it like to live and work with your co-consultant over the summer?
I was actually really excited about having a co-consultant, because meeting new people that come from different backgrounds and have different experiences was one of the goals of my MBA experience. It was also personally reassuring to know that I was guaranteed someone to walk alongside who is going through the same experience as me. My co-consultant and I became good friends and still keep in touch.
From a professional standpoint, we brought different skill sets, so collaborating and ideating with my co-consultant was really fun. I think we learned alot from each other as well, which is really valuable as we head into the second year of our respective programs and are thinking about the skills we want to develop further, and what we want to do after graduation.
How do you think that the internship experience influenced your career path? Has it confirmed hypotheses you had coming in? Or has it perhaps shifted your trajectory in some way?
A little bit of both, I think. I knew that I wanted to give the public sector a chance, but I just wasn’t sure which way it would go, because I knew the pace of life relative to traditional private sector consulting was going to be very different. The work-life balance I had over the summer was so healthy and there is a lot of flexibility in regards to lifestyle, which I’m weighing more heavily at this point of my career.
But the internship confirmed my hypothesis that I want to work in an impact-oriented environment. It was so refreshing to work alongside people that shared my sense of purpose, and saw their career at the NPS as a calling. I found working toward a shared mission to be really empowering and motivating, so that is definitely something I’m looking for in my next role.
Lake Mead sunsets
In your experience, what was the most valuable aspect of being a BPI consultant?
My fondest memories of the experience were the people. Truly every interaction that I had, from the BMG and PGI, to the park staff and my co-consultant, was meaningful and supportive. I have had so many people say things along the lines of, “let me know how I can support you even after you graduate”. So, I think the most valuable thing I’m taking away is a community I’ll have for life.
Are there any final words of advice or insight that you would give to first year students considering this internship?
I’d say an open mind is so important. The BPI is such a unique opportunity, but the two years of your graduate program are the time to experiment. When else are you going to have this opportunity to do public service, live in or near a park, and make such strong bonds with amazing human beings all while applying the skills you have learned in your MBA? The projects will challenge you, just as the more traditional consulting internships will, but you’ll take so much more from this experience for your own personal growth and journey.