Internship Spotlight: Lacey Neel ’25, Boston Consulting Group
Lacey Neel spent her summer at the consulting firm’s Austin office, working on a digital healthcare project and a social impact case.
We asked rising second-year MBA students to check in from their summer internships, where they applied the lessons of their first year at Yale SOM.
Internship: Summer Consultant, Boston Consulting Group, Austin, Texas
Hometown: Tyler, Texas
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Go-to work lunch: Sweetgreen!
After-work routine: Walk my dog, Vinny; spend time with friends; go to happy hours with fellow interns; chill out with a book or cryptic crossword puzzle.
Favorite thing about internship city: Austin was home before SOM, so it’s great to be back with friends and family. But also, the natural pool Barton Springs! 😊
This summer, I interned at Boston Consulting Group. I spent most of my time at the firm working on a social impact case in the realm of public education, creating a strategic focus and long-term vision for a philanthropic organization. I also worked briefly on a digital healthcare case, improving the customer journey for ordering critical medical equipment online.
I went into my internship with the hypothesis that I’d like to work in the public sector or the healthcare industry. I also had some questions about the consulting lifestyle— for example, what it would be like to travel during the week—that I hoped to explore. Working on two projects with two teams gave me exposure to two very different, but equally valuable, work experiences.
On the digital healthcare case, I joined a large team which had already been working with the client for a few months. It was a travel case, so the team co-located in BCG’s Brooklyn office. Joining an established team and existing project provided the support I needed to hit the ground running; by my second day, I was building Excel models and creating client-facing resources. While I was thankful for the guidance of my BCG teammates, I was also thrilled to realize that my classes at Yale SOM had equipped me with the critical thinking skills and technical expertise required on the job.
After work, the team stuck together for happy hours, dinners, and even a trip up to the top of the Empire State Building—something I’d never done before! By the end of week one, I felt less like an intern and more like a true member of the BCG community.
The social impact project, which I joined in the early stages, was very different. We stayed in Austin (something my pets very much appreciated!) and worked as a small team. I owned all external research, examining trends in public education and philanthropy and identifying best practices and areas of opportunity for creating impact. Strategy cases tend to be more ambiguous, and this one was no exception. I found myself relying on the casing skills I’d gained from the Consulting Club throughout the recruitment process: creating frameworks, building hypotheses, and tracking down the data I needed to either exclude them or dive deeper. The project wrapped up in my last week at BCG, and it was so rewarding to see the results of our team’s hard work. The project also confirmed that in the future, I want to be working in or near the public sector.
I’ll be heading back to BCG Austin after graduation next year. Apart from the work I got to do, the culture of the office was inclusive, supportive, and super fun. In my 10 weeks working there, I built meaningful professional relationships across all levels of the organization, and made true friendships with my fellow interns. There is still so much to learn as I start my tenure in consulting, but I know Yale SOM will continue preparing me to navigate the challenges ahead!
