by Gabriel Esteban ‘27

Olney’s List is a newly developed website that highlights and promotes local businesses in Olney. Created by local realtor Andy Rubin and business owner Ken Lindner, the website serves to further unite and foster a community that is already tightly knit.

One of the unique aspects of Olney’s List is its integration of student interns. According to the Olney’s List website, there are currently three student interns. One of them is Shuvashree Ghimire, a marketing manager intern who graduated from Sherwood last year but still works with the website, and another is senior Elise Yang, who is a webmaster intern. The inclusions of students working on Olney’s List was facilitated by Maise Lynch, the internship coordinator at Sherwood. Lynch was approached by Rubin and Kinder with the idea for the website. 

“We started talking about it, and [student interns] seemed like it was a really good match for a collaboration,” said Lynch, “so I started moving forward with it.”

Lynch was especially excited with this idea because of its alignment with the MCPS Blueprint for Maryland’s Future in regard to education. “[The goals of Olney’s List] really align with the goals of Montgomery County and with Maryland,” explained Lynch. “Part of that legislation is pillar three about college and career readiness. Right now Montgomery County has a lot of pathways built out for students, with ways that they can pursue jobs, careers, mentorships and [opportunities] to learn from business people who are out there. The idea of students being able to learn from local business people and to get exposed to so much was great.” 

The student interns have provided a tangible benefit to this organization and its goals in many different ways. Initially, since the idea was so innovative, Lynch did not have students ready to go for any internship. Once the website was created and in a beta mode, she began to work with an intern who she taught to maintain and update the website. “Then we had a whole bunch of marketing interns and they worked all through the summer. They just are really dedicated to the project and so they have continued to work,” said Lynch. “I just got an intern who is really interested in computers, computer science, building websites, and having a business. He’s actually going to take it to the next level, which is building out an app.”