Background
I've run across this problem as I am currently an intern at a large company's local software division. I have been given the task of extending a project that several previous interns have worked on (not collectively but sequentially). The project is written in C# and is a relatively simple tool (codebase of about 10,000 lines)
The problem
The first intern started writing the tool using pretty much only lists and ignoring the fact that setting up data structures (such as objects) makes the tool much more extensible and readable. The interns that came afterward did not bother to change this and instead built upon the tool in the same manner. This led to a couple of massive methods ( +700 lines), lots of global variables (most variables were global), and just very bad organization.
My Approach
I spent countless hours in the debugger understanding the logic of the code and have (for the most part) a very good outlook on it. I have written the required data structures and am organizing as well as rewriting "black box" portions of the code in order to make it possible to add a new feature without spending +2 weeks trying to figure out what is going on. I am doing this not just for my own sanity but for the intern that will come after me. I am constantly trying to focus on readability and simplicity while avoiding solutions that are short, effective, but slightly esoteric to another intern. I am following general OOP design and trying to avoid pitfalls that come from blindly believing a certain method is the best method without researching it and understanding why and how its applied. I am leaning heavily to a top-down approach in terms of design and how the execution flow will be laid out as this seems to be easier for others to quickly understand and internalize, but am open to suggestions for alternative approaches or methodologies.
The Question
How would I go about balancing my wish to write good code and writing code is understandable to a relatively untrained intern (the assumption is that they are pursuing a computer science degree but are still in school) while having a good outlook for the future in terms of extendability?
Any help is greatly appreciated