I have been absolutely in love w/ my 22" monitor widescreen and it very much helped productivity.
For $149 here's a 22" widescreen, bigger screen and allows for digital input (unlike the $99 monitor above) so could be used in your upgraded system and stick the intern with another monitor. Mine is 2ms vs. 5ms on this one. Don't know how much that affects things.
Newegg.com - Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2500:1 - LCD Monitors
Will you get $50 of increased productivity, I would find it hard to believe you wouldn't!