You're more than halfway there to becoming a seasoned vet when it comes to programming then.
This really is what it all boils down to. Too many Computer Science students (at least in my school) think that all they need to do is the assignments they get throughout their 4 years in school. This is the sure way to make sure you know absolutely nothing about programming by the time you graduate. You should always be working on a school assignment and at least one other project of your own. You learn so much by just trying stuff. Of course, this kind of is more geared towards 2nd year students and up. You do need to learn a little bit before you start doing your own stuff. The summer after my freshman year I remember I worked on a couple different stupid little games in Java and from that point on I was always a better programmer than 95% of the other students.