Breaking into Finance - First Year Student

Hi everyone, I'm a first-year business student at a tier 1.5 business school in Canada. I am looking to specialize in finance and I'm keen on having a career in finance, particularly the buy-side. I almost have a full ride in terms of scholarship and I have some PE experience before coming to the university. I'm just ending my first year and I have been doing some stuff like making models, ERs' and stock pitches. However, hardly any firm is looking to give me an internship and I want to have some experience in finance, as soon as possible. I have written emails and cold-called nearly 300 companies but I haven't reaped any benefits from it. I'm also planning to start a finance blog where I'll post my views and ideas about some recent or major financial transactions in the past few years and some deep insightful valuation models every 2 months or so. All of you gorillas, what would you recommend me to do and how can I have a significant advantage in having opportunities on the buy-side? Maybe tell me a couple of imperative things. Any sort of advice or resources are appreciated and thank you for your help.

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