This sounds insane. I have not worked at a place where the workflow was so holy and important that it couldn't be captured in a near default JIRA install.
Most of the customization asks I've seen with JIRA come from dysfunctional organizations that demand new swimlanes like "QA" and "product approval" and "spec design".
JIRA out-of-the-box is surprisingly sane - most people who hate JIRA really hate the custom workflows their own organisation has inflicted on them.
> Even with intern work, it doesn’t make sense, especially since interns will be gone tomorrow ;)
But there will be a new batch sooner or later that can extend and update it.
Especially one that becomes a crucial component of a company's workflow (as is the case for bug trackers in any properly run software company).
Really a tech stack that doesn’t get nearly enough attention IMO.
Ones like JIRA can takes weeks to setup for your org and include their own query language. All of this complexity just to do something so simple is not rational.
As long as you don't over engineer it then it's only a days work to get something up and running and it's a great project for interns.