Start writing code to solve problems in your life any language will do, The lower level you go the better you ill understand. I had a new grad student with a couple of weeks and nothing to do and thought he would learn C. With a good background in Assembler he was able to do almost any thing he wanted. He ended up as mover and shaker in the design and building of controls and logging for horizonal drilling in the oilfield.
Experience ithe road that take you where you want to be get any way you can. Try to get paid for your time if you can, but good experience is worth more than money where you stand now. Find a project, define the problem, write specifications then a plan to make it happen and fill in the blanks and make it work. ...rinse and repeat .....
An Ardwino, Raspberry Pi or yet another address book in Visual Basic all are fine. Just design different well planed project and make the happen over and over again.
Look around campus and find people needing help on thing you think you would like doing and pitch in as soon as you can. Add computer programming as soon as its good enough to work. Any work history is better than none.
experain
