Strategy for getting into Investment Banking from NYC Baruch Master's program

Hi, I am an incoming Masters in Accountancy student at NYC Baruch and I am interested in going into Investment Banking. I am aware IB is an ultra-competitive space and I am not trying to or will I be able to, go into BB or EB, but I want to try getting into, at best, a MM or boutique firm. I will start my Master's next month and wanted some advice on how to strategize to put myself in a good position to recruit for an IB position. I will complete my master's around late 2024 so I will have windows for summer internships. I want to get into investment banking as I like the m&a process, how to strategize the steps for making a transaction happen, working on excel with modeling. I have previous work experience in accounting at a growing company where I led a small team of two doing revenue reporting. I know networking is the key if you're not from a target. My strategy for networking is connecting with alumni from Baruch working in the industry and trying to find events where people from the industry might attend and try to connect with them there. Also, anyone thinks if I do investment banking cases and modeling and show it on a portfolio, will this yield anything when trying to network? Even if I don't get in, I at least want to try. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank You.