They can be extremely valuable if you play your cards right!

Do exactly what you're told to do. In many cases it's more important to simply do what you're told, rather than trying to change something to what you perceive is better. Be sure to ask for an LOR (Letter Of Recommendation).

Setting yourself up for a great paying job in the future or getting a great LOR (Letter Of Recommendation) for a job or for graduate school.

Keep up a work ethic to ensure positive referrals, use LinkedIn for college students and get the recommendations while still on the job, and keep good contacts/names for each organization. Volunteer for every project you can!

Internships are critical for a number of reasons. First, it allows the student to explore the field from the inside. You have the opportunity to learn before you make the decision to follow the academic path that will lead you to a career in the field. If you get to the inside and find it is not a good match, better to know that now when you have the opportunity to change direction. Second, it provides relevant work experience. During these economic times when many college grads are competing with job applicants with 1-5 years of experience, this opportunity can help bolster their changes for landing that first job in relation to their competition.

I tell student to work smartly during their internship to complete the required task so that it allows them time to explore areas outside of their responsibility. As with any job, your employer wants to see that you can handle the job you have and do it well before they are willing to expand your responsibilities. Doing this not only allows you to learn many more facets about the field you are working but it also greatly improves your chances of landing a job there upon graduation or at the very least this employer will be a great advocate of yours in the field and can help you secure that very important first job.

Internships are becoming more desirable as students struggle with college costs. The opportunity to possibly earn some money while earning college credit is huge. The chance to explore careers before getting too far down the academic path is also a bonus to internships.

Paid or unpaid internships offer the opportunity to explore a career that interests you. It is not uncommon for an internship to turn in to an offer of employment down the road. You have had a chance to check out the company and they in turn have assessed your abilities. From an employer's standpoint, it is definitely preferable to hire someone who already has a sense of the job, expectations, and has demonstrated interest in the company.

Unpaid Internships, if organized correctly, can provide a better learning experience because companies offering unpaid internships, especially for credit, are not supposed to use interns as labor. The Department of Labor (DOL) just recently (Spring 2011) issued guidelines that listed 6 occasions where for-profit companies can use unpaid interns. Most of these guidelines center around providing a learning experience for the benefit of the unpaid intern. Whereas paid interns are most often used as low-cost labor and assigned the least meaningful tasks, unpaid interns may have opportunities for exposure to more meaningful tasks for learning. Unfortunately, for-profit companies offering unpaid internships as a way to get no-cost labor are in violation of DOL guidelines and these are the internships to stay away from. Before accepting an unpaid internship, be sure to ask the employer the purpose of the internship and what you can expect to learn from participating in the internship.

A student should consider an unpaid internship if it compensates them in a different way. For example, a student who wants to go into sports marketing would benefit greatly from the connections and experiences they would gain if they worked for "peanuts" (pun intended!) at a minor-league ballpark over the summer. The take away from unpaid internships is that the network and experience will produce "paid" internships and real jobs after college.