How to deal with limited work experience in college?

Hi guys,

I'm an international student, currently a rising sophomore at a target (think stern, ross etc). Because of restrictions on the number of months I can work in the US, I've been advised to pursue an internship in the US only in the summer after my junior year.

However, as I am in the middle east, i find it difficult to find relevant experience that can help me get that junior year SA offer. Most of the banks don't have a summer program as such, and even if they do its mostly for local students.

But, I still managed to get an banking internship over the summer in fixed income department, where I mostly did research on the debt market, updated prices/yields and betas.

So how do i try to get around my lack of IB experience? I've talked to a few banks to try and work in M&A, but after talking personally to their interns i learnt that most of them just do industry research and don't directly work on deals. Do you think I should try and get some experience in the US despite it being risky as an international student?

A lot of my peers already have a lot of relevant experience, and I find my self unable to stay competitive in terms of work experience. I do have a good gpa (3.9+) and good extra curricula's, but without relevant experience i doubt it will be of much use.

Any suggestions as to what I should try to do to improve my chances of getting BB SA position after junior year?