My first internship was with Symbol Technologies after my second year of college. I absolutely loved it! The people I worked with were great and the atmosphere was very laid back. And everyone was willing to help me! They didn't treat me like "just a college student" and they always listened to what I said. They even asked me for my status on my work and ideas in the department meetings. It was challenging, but there was always people willing to help me if I ever had any problems or if I didn't understand something. I learned a lot on my internship and I realized that working is a *lot* different to being in school. I remember after my second year of college, I was really wondering if engineering was the way I really wanted to go. The classes were hard and I didn't really seem to grasp it as well as others. And I was so scared that I would take this internship and realize that I really suck as an engineer. Turns out, working is such a different experience, and I really liked doing the things that an engineer does. It kind of renewed my faith in wanting to be an engineer...even if some of the classes zap the life out of me.
Now, I've had 4 internships, at 4 different places and I still love them. <shamless plug> That's one of the reasons I went to RIT...they're coop program. I have to have 5 internships/coops before I graduate. </shameless plug> It's great work experience and it helps me figure out what I want to do after graduation (which is in May *shudders* I'm already doing interviews for "real" jobs).
Anyway...that's my $0.02.