One of the questions I ask when interviewing interns for Cool People Care is "When you look back on your semester with us, what do you want to be able to say happened?"
This gets us beyond a list of objectives or some canned interview Q and A. I want to know their biggest dreams for their time as an intern and what they want to come out on the other side having experienced, learned, failed, and triumphed.
This answer also lets us structure their customized intern experience with us. Each intern tackles a big project in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities. We want them to be able to hold something up high that they put their fingerprints on.
The same could be said for your time in school, your new job, your volunteer experience, or even just this week: When you get to the end, what do you want to look back and be able to say took place here?