The Summer I Learned Planning: My Internship at The Schreifer Group

Introduction 

I couldn’t hear myself think. 

As our project team wrapped up the in-brief with stakeholders at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), I really couldn’t sense anything at all, apart from my teeth chattering and the deafening roar of an F-22 Raptor fighter jet flying right over our heads. Our collective gaze shot up to the sky just in time to watch it blast vertically into the clouds and disappear within seconds. We laughed about it, but we didn’t have time to stick around. We hustled to the car in preparation to look for an oft-ignored stakeholder: the thriving moose population at JBER. In between high-stakes meetings with important military and civilian stakeholders, I searched every nook and cranny of JBER looking for moose. Final stats: four days, 20+ transportation projects developed, and one moose spotted (off base, but I’m counting it.) 

Each day at The Schreifer Group (TSG) brought new experiences and unpredictable opportunities. While I’m still searching for my first on-base moose sighting, my three months at TSG provided me with an incredibly wide range of project work. In this post, I’m excited to share some of the amazing work I’ve been involved with, alongside some larger reflections on my experience working at TSG. 

Meeting TSG 

I first met Jill Schreifer, Abbey Ness, and Bailey Moro at a mock planning charrette they were hosting for an Urban Studies course at Duke University my freshman fall. Jill led my small group of four through a redesign of a semi-neglected part of Duke’s campus. As we developed ideas ranging from a multi-use aquatic facility to a community relations center, Jill’s creativity and passion for planning immediately stood out to me. If Jill and her team were so invested in a plan that would never make it out of the room, I wondered what TSG’s real projects were like. From that moment forward, I was hooked on the type of nuanced problem-solving I would soon utilize daily as a planning intern. When I reached back out and ultimately accepted the summer position, I still didn’t know what an internship in federal planning would look like. But I remembered the genuine enthusiasm and care Jill and her team had for the planning activity, and I’m as confident now as I was then that TSG is an amazing company to spend the summer with. 

Presenting ideas for a greenfield development on Central Campus during the Duke Urban Studies House Course 

What It’s Like to Work at TSG 

Throughout the internship, Abbey and Bailey joked that I was there to investigate their many brainchildren. They were constantly overflowing with new ideas. Exciting new business ventures, research opportunities, and meaningful project work were constantly hitting my inbox. Each day, Bailey would give me a new challenge and give me a perfect amount of guidance to approach the problem at hand. A 200-page report to view? Sounds good! Materials for an open house next week? On it. No two days were the same. 

Joining an all-remote company, I was unsure about whether or how I would communicate with my coworkers. My worries immediately went away after the barrage of meetings on my first day. I met each member of the company, even those with whom I wouldn’t be working on a regular basis. This immediate introduction made me feel much more at home. I also had several 1:1 meetings with coworkers to discuss the project work they were involved with, and to share my motivations for working at TSG. As the summer went on, I got to work with a variety of people on a multitude of different projects, but there was enough structure to the internship that I never felt lost or unaccounted for. 

I was lucky to have Bailey as my main touchpoint/mentor throughout the internship. He advocated for me, coordinated my workload, and took time out of his day to answer my every request. Whenever I finished work, I submitted it to Bailey. While finishing a college assignment can sometimes feel like a submission into the abyss, Bailey always got back to me with detailed and constructive feedback. He helped me improve my structure and approach to blog posts, slide decks, and reviewing reports. He also educated me on planning processes, industry expectations, and most importantly, introduced me to my new favorite ramen place in downtown Anchorage. 

Highlights of Project Work 

As I previously mentioned, my favorite part of the internship was the week-long trip I took to Alaska with TSG’s Bailey and Geoff Appel, alongside employees from two other companies working on the project. The goal of the trip was to lead stakeholder engagement to produce a comprehensive list of transportation infrastructure projects as part of a Transportation Management Plan (TMP) at JBER. I took comprehensive notes and pictures during a variety of stakeholder meetings with departments on and off base. We met with 40+ stakeholders across the security, explosives safety, and environmental teams on base, and worked with 20+ members of municipal transportation and planning teams in downtown Anchorage. We brainstormed over 50 projects to improve transportation flow on base and improve mission readiness. We presented a consolidated list of these to the base commander while navigating a change in command and a simulated power outage. 

Supporting the JBER Transportation Management Plan stakeholder discussions 

Another highlight of project work was preparing case studies for a space utilization project at the Lanham Federal Building in Fort Worth, TX. As an architectural engineering student, I was thrilled to research sustainable federal buildings and provide sustainable comps to the government. These case studies contextualized the space utilization plan and helped to comparatively evaluate the long-term usability of the building. I was proud to see my analysis of four buildings, including the Kennedy Space Center Headquarters facility, in the final report. 

The USACE Seattle Headquarters building, featured in a case study for the Lanham Federal Building USACE Space Utilization Plan 

I also worked on several other projects, most notably including master plans, Air Installations Compatible Use Zones (AICUZ) studies, and research on micromobility solutions for military installations. 

Beyond Projects: New Ventures 

In addition to project work, I was heavily involved with business development. Jill, Abbey, and Bailey had a variety of new ideas to expand the scope of the services TSG currently offers.  

Armed with a paragraph of information on an idea for a new TSG-led experience, I built a 30-slide deck and an Excel cost estimation model. After extensive research, I crafted the entire experience from scratch and presented it to Abbey, who noted that it was exactly what they were looking for. In outlining the details of the service and forecasting potential profit based on market trends, I helped the company realize that the new experience was more than a pipe dream—it was an impactful business concept that actually made financial sense. I also developed client-focused materials for a second, new business line. Again, with very little experience with TSG’s services, I expanded an entire line of services that built upon TSG’s current industry position. I prepared marketing — both a deck and a blog post — outlining the intention and proposed execution of the new venture.  

When I first joined TSG, I was hardly expecting to gain finance, marketing, and consulting skills from an internship in federal planning. Being able to build a quantitative, financial picture to explore the feasibility of several groundbreaking proposed ventures was such an insightful experience. The breadth and depth of my experience at TSG speak to the trust the company places in its employees and the level of engagement an internship with a small business provides. 

Bigger Reflections 

Three core elements made the internship so much more than I could’ve asked for: 

The quality of work I was assigned made me excited to come to work each day. I was proud of the work I was doing, both because I personally found it interesting and because it felt like I was making a tangible difference. It was motivating to see my words in reports, decks, and business plans that would eventually be presented to clients. 

The flexibility the internship offered was paramount. As a remote company, I was able to work from home while occasionally traveling — a three-week stay with extended family didn’t impact my work schedule. Additionally, when another summer opportunity fell through, TSG allowed me to extend my internship by six weeks. This sort of flexibility made the experience much more enjoyable and comfortable. 

I also gained an incredible exposure to a wide variety of the business. I learned about both the technical planning and facilitation sides of TSG. Attending meetings at JBER helped me catch up on the terminology used by planners, as well as the mechanisms by which plans are developed. I also witnessed how stakeholder meetings operated and gained valuable consulting takeaways applicable to any industry. 

Conclusion 

I’ll carry everything I learned from TSG as I enter my sophomore year at Duke studying Economics, Statistics, and Architectural Engineering. 

• Consulting isn’t about immediately having the right answers. It’s about asking the right questions to the right people to find solutions that work for everyone. 

• Self-advocacy is important: I advocated to be included on the projects I knew would have the biggest impact on me. I’m eternally grateful to Jill and Abbey for their help and willingness to let the freshman intern join such complex projects. 

• TSG is an amazing company to work for, especially as a young professional. It’s inclusive, collaborative, and creative. The company culture values mentorship and giving real opportunities to interns. TSG trusted me to produce work that I, myself, wasn’t convinced I was capable of, and for that I will be forever thankful. 

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude again to Jill Schreifer, Bailey Moro, and Abbey Ness for offering the chance to join such a special company and community. To prospective interns in the future: choose TSG! You won’t regret it.