How can I get prepared to lead youth?!?!

I recently spoke with a woman who is now a college professor, but was previously a youth pastor.  I asked her "what can I do to best prepare to go into youth ministry?" to which she responded that I was doing many of the things that she would recommend.  She said that first it was important to have mentors, and for me specifically female mentors who work in ministry.  It would be very important for me to talk with women in ministry to talk about the things that they have learned through their experience, the challenges, and anything else they wanted to share.  This would help me avoid hopefully some of the problems that they experienced.  She said that it is important for me, before committing to going to seminary for two years for youth ministry, to get a summer internship in a church working with youth.  Through doing this I could have a real life experience that would show me the joys and challenges of this area of work for myself.  When getting into it I could see that this fit me even better than what I had imagined, or on the other hand that maybe this was not where I felt God calling me.  Either way it would be a good learning experience.  Third she told me that it was great that I am a communication major.  She said that youth ministry can not be taught in a classroom, but if it could, the communication classes come the closest to teaching things that would really help during being in youth ministry.  She spoke of how you need to know things like interpersonal communication skills, mediation, and other areas of communication.  If you are a good communicator, you will be much better in youth ministry.  These are things that were very helpful to me, and I hope they will be to you as well if you are considering going into youth ministry.