At the time, Maisie was a junior at the University of Washington, majoring in Environmental Studies.
For her upcoming senior year, Maisie needed to do an internship through the Capstone program, which requires that students apply their education and skills to a real-world project. These internships provide practical, hands-on experience while allowing students to demonstrate their abilities in a professional setting.
“I was looking for an idea of what to do for this program,” she said. “After my dad told me about the golf course in Port Townsend, and what the management team was trying to accomplish, I got very interested.”
She spoke with Horner directly, to get more information about it, and that convinced her.
Maisie had played on the golf team while attending Cedarcrest High School in Duvall, in the Cascade foothills east of the Seattle area.
“I know my way around a golf course,” she said. “This seemed a great chance to combine my two interests.”
Maisie put together a proposal, outlining an environmental sustainability plan for the golf course, and sent it to Bob Wheeler, the president of the Friends’ Board of Directors.
“We hadn’t been actively looking to bring on an intern,” Wheeler said. “We were still really busy just focusing on getting the golf course going again. But Maisie being proactive in approaching us with the idea was very appealing, and we thought this would work in our overall mission, so we came up with a plan.”
She then sent the proposal to Ken Yocom, the dean of the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments and is also a landscape architecture professor. Yocom is also Maisie’s advisor.
Wheeler and Yocom conferred, and the two put the internship into motion.
Maisie works about 20 hours a week on her internship project, and the golf course then pays her to work an additional 20 hours a week on the grounds crew, where she works under Dylan Stanfield, the course’s superintendent. For the duration of her internship – about two and half months this summer – Maisie has been living in the RV in Wheeler’s yard, as well as doing some housesitting.
