How One Member Created a Revenue Stream for our National Parks
If you ever stay in a yurt in Idaho, Net Impact member Carolyn Maezes may be the one to thank. During her summer as a BPI intern, she created a five year business plan for City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park. While exploring various strategic options, she and her partner discovered the park faced a lack of housing and revenue.
"We did the research and built a financial model to assess the impact of bringing in yurts. We laid out a couple different scenarios for them, and the park ended up deciding to build yurts within a year."
Her project backs up her statement that the internship allows you to do something that will have a lot of impact. The process Carolyn and her partner went through also helped the park think about their actions in a more structured way; looking at, for example, how different grants may or may not fit in to a five year plan and how they should allocate resources to fulfill that plan.
A Career Path Takes Shape
But the BPI internship provided more than just hands-on work experience - Carolyn's summer in Idaho also influenced her future career path. The national reserve and state park where Carolyn served are managed through a partnership between the state of Idaho and the federal government. This relationship gave Carolyn first-hand experience in how the three sectors - government, non-profit, and for-profit - interact.
The opportunity to work in such an environment provided her with concrete examples and insights regarding the interplay between the business and social sectors. Not only did Carolyn find these direct experiences useful during her post-internship job interviews, they also reaffirmed her desire to work in the social sector.
Developing New Skills
With 2.5 billion year old granite monoliths spanning upwards of 60 stories tall, City of Rocks is a climber's paradise. But Carolyn's BPI service didn't just expose Carolyn to the beauty of the Rockies; it also exposed her to the art of facilitation. Even though everyone may have the same end goal, she says of the social sector, there are many competing interests. She became a pro at prioritizing these various interests and perspectives through reframing and compromise.
It was also the work she put in behind the scenes - forming personal relationships and going on ride-alongs - that helped her become part of the community. [The park staff] felt like the interns' opinions would have an impact on the park. They wanted interns there, and they knew our suggestions would be implemented. This mix of management and autonomy really stood out: I largely devised my own workplan but also had awesome support, which included check-ins every week with our BPI program manager.
Carolyn can't speak highly enough of her BPI experience. When she started interviewing after the internship, it was a huge positive. Out of everything on her resume, it was the one thing people always wanted to talk about...and it was something I could talk about in a fun and exciting way...enough people have done the internship that it has a great reputation, but it's still really unique and interesting.
After her internship, Carolyn quickly moved into nonprofit consulting. She now serves as Manager of Special Projects for a healthcare provider in Denver, where she still gets to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of our natural landscape.
