Full time student in Co, wants to be immersed in the industry

Hi all,
my name is Karl and i am currently a full time student at the Colorado School of Mines. I am planning on a major in Mechanical engineering with a minor or major in business and economics. I've known i want to work in the marine industry since i was a child. I grew up in Oklahoma, spending most of my weekends on the water, sleeping on my families cruiser on Grand Lake. I ended up at this school after deciding the Coast Guard Academy was not for me. Mines is a relatively prestigous engineering school, with a great devotion to their students having industry experience when they graduate. My problem is that the school is also mostly devoted to energy and resources, (Petroleum/mining/geology e.t.c.) From what i understand is that in the marine industry it is very important to know people. I do plan to eventually take courses at one of the various small craft design institution (Westlawn, YDS) but that is several years away, as i must get my BS first. My future goals are to work as a designer/engineer for a commercial boatbuilder (I have always loved Viking Yachts!). I suppose my question in short is, how can i immerse myself in the industry all the way form colorado. I am very interested in doing Summer internships for a firm/company, but how do i get my foot in the door? What kind of organization would be good to join to make these contacts. I've searched the alumni lists for my school, with no leads into the marine industry. Any advice is much appreciated!
-Karl

 

Contact SNAME, www.sname.org, and check at the federal government job site for summer internships, www.usajobs.opm.gov.

 

Viking has an internship program. I interned there between my 2nd and 3rd year. I was in a co-op program in school and graduated with a pretty decent resume. Like yours, they focused on local businesses and more knows industries but i was still able to find a couple good internships and get a great job when i graduated.

The best way to find an intership i found, was to call every company you can find a contact number for. Do some research on them, most dont do their own designs, find out who dies and find someone in their engineering dept. if they seem paritally interested, be consistant, but not annoying.