• Clarify expectations.Make sure you understand your job responsibilities. Know who you report to and what you should be doing throughout the day. Try to get your description in writing. There will definitely be many times where your doing all types of tasks, some never mentioned, but it's safe to know what your expected to do and if someone else tries to take advantage of you.
• Ask a ton of questions. As long as your not asking the same questions over and over or asking them at inappropriate times, feel free to fire away. It's very rare your boss will just teach you everything all day, but ask questions to squeeze the most out of them.
• Request feedback.Perhaps you have meetings week to week to discuss your performance but if not ask for feedback. This ties in with the above 'ask questions' bullet, but it is very professional and appropriate to ask for feedback as well as useful for you and the company.

Maintaining professionalism long after the interview

Congrats, your heading out for your first day of work. You never know what doors will open up for you through college internships, but right now you're probably only doing this for one of the following reasons:
-You're getting credits for something without going to class.
-Parents said you need to start getting solid work experience.
-You are determined to build your résumé up before graduation.
-Your professor thinks you are a genius and recommended you to this company.

Whatever your reason is for doing the internship, you should embrace this experience as a stepping stone for future job experience. College internships give you excellent experience in an office environment, provide references for your next job, and allow you to put what you're learning in the classroom into use in the real world.

Tasks performed during college internships will vary from filing and data entry to accompanying the executives to their meetings. No matter what you are doing, you should always be enthusiastic and agreeable. You are learning by just being in the environment and absorbing what is going on around you. The harder and more diligently you work at your internship position, the more responsibility your supervisor will give you.
For whatever length of time you are at your internship—whether it's a month or a year—you should always conduct yourself in a professional manner. Make sure that you show up on time, dress appropriately, turn off your cell phone, speak clearly, listen intently, and enjoy yourself! If you ever have to leave for a doctor's appointment or a class assignment, be sure to give your employer a week's notice.

Finally, if you are at a computer for work, you should not be surfing the latest ESPN scores or shopping on the GAP Web site for a new summer outfit. There is always something to be done, so if you run out of work, take the initiative to ask your supervisor for a new assignment. Similarly, the phone at your desk is for work-related calls, not the gossip from last night's study session with the cute guy from world civ class. Remember that many college student internships lead to job offers upon graduation, so if you mind your manners and apply your fabulous skills, you never know what they may offer!

By Carlin Carr
-writer for Trinity College and New England Watershed magazine.
http://www.collegeview.com/articles/CV/careers/internship_etiquette.html

If there is one thing you learned on the first day of your freshman year, it was the importance of having resources and the value in knowing how to use them. Indeed, knowing where to turn when you need something is just as important as having what you need in the first place. If resourcefulness is a measure of value, then knowing where to turn might even be more useful than possessing the knowledge first hand. And college internships are great for this.

The importance of internships to college students in terms of networking and gaining new resources cannot be understated. Building a network of "who you knows" through college student internships can pay great dividends upon graduation. By remembering the social aspect of making contacts with people as people while working at college internships, you can help to ensure that, if good contacts are with other organizations by the time you graduate, you will then have an "in" at those other organizations in addition to the organizations where you performed actual college internships. So get in there and mingle. Make it a point to meet as many people as possible. Learning about someone as a person can be as valuable as learning about what his or her job entails. Social gatherings with co-workers after hours or on weekends are great ways to network and build meaningful bonds that make the most of college internships. Remember the value of college internships often lies in the people with whom you will work with.

College Internships are Just One Option

The benchmark of any college or university lies in the success of its graduates. To bolster the odds of success, schools promote college internships. They also have specialized offices and employees whose primary responsibility is to help you get a job. Use them! Many of the advantages of college internships can also be realized through campus jobs and by getting in with alums who have been where you are at, and can help you get to where you want to be. But how?

Federal and state governments award "work-study" funding to colleges and universities. The sole purpose of this funding is to act as an incentive for universities to hire students for university positions by covering a certain percentage of that student's wages. Not all students or positions qualify for work-study funding, but it is worth investigating. If you are a computer science major, you can gain experience as nearly every school in the world has a steady commitment to staying up-to-date with technology. English or journalism students can gain great experience writing for the school paper or landing a position in the marketing and communications office. These are just two alternatives to college internships.
Additionally, schools like to keep in touch with alums. In fact, they have specific departments solely dedicated to this purpose. As such, they are often aware of the industries in which their alums are working. And alums are often eager to help students at their alma mater succeed. In fact, in addition to specialized alumni-related college internships, some colleges and universities maintain social networks that feature job listings from organizations where alums currently work.

When in doubt, the first place to stop should be your campus job search office. They are uniquely prepared to provide information about college internships, job fairs, summer jobs in the community, and possible opportunities with alums.
Article from Jeff McGuire - http://www.collegeview.com/college_internships.html