Looking at this, it reminds me that I need to build more connections at some point. So far there's only one or two people I have regular connections with. I'm hoping to get to know more people who know about my field in the fall.
I have heard about the whole internship thing and it's highly recommended for people getting into game design, although it would be dealing with the IT help desk. Not all that exciting, but it gets you familiar with computers and I can at least say I have customer service experience.
I also wanted to mention that I like that you mentioned being specific about career goals. If I said I just wanted to do "game design", it would cause a lot of confusion, as it is too broad. I hope to be versatile, but mainly doing the art design is my best option since I tend to pick up art techniques pretty quickly.