Was the meetup in Santa Clara?
Santa Clara is not where the "action" is, so to speak. SF is the center of action in Silicon Valley, even though it is technically not in the actual geographic valley. Other hotbeds of startup activity would include the Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Menlo Park area. As it stands, Santa Clara is quite far from the epicenter of Silicon Valley. Along those lines, 90% of meetups in Silicon Valley happen in SF. Another 10% occur in Mountain View / Palo Alto / Menlo Park.
Yes, the big tech companies are in Mtn View / PA / Menlo, but most meetups are in SF because of the sheer density of engineers.
There are events happening quite frequently. Check out meetup.com and Eventbrite to stay up to date. You also have to go up to people and take the initiative to talk to them: most meetups have a format where there's a speaker and then after the meetup ends people socialize. Lots of people at meetups are looking to hire; a typical conversation would be something like you introducing yourself, asking what the other person does, and then telling them that you're looking for an internship. Many times I've had conversations with people and then they will mention that they're looking to hire.
I've never had luck with craigslist or indeed. Some great resources for finding internships: AngelList (the talent portion of the site) and LinkedIn.
Also, nothing wrong with directly applying to companies through their websites. A lot of startups also like it when you take the initiative to email them - a short intro about why you're ideal (I'm Eric and I'm really interested in <foo>, having done <bar>, bla bla bla).
You also need a GitHub account and should put some code there.
This is totally unrelated to your job search, but ericna.com is available. You should buy that domain name and someday put a portfolio up there.
Also, I've heard of SUNY Buffalo and I wouldn't say that its reputation in the US is that of a mediocre university. I would say it's a "decent" state university. Have you tried contacting SUNY Buffalo alumni on LinkedIn that work at startups?
Also, I'm a bit confused as to what kind of role you're looking for. You experience with Java/C++ leads me to slot you into a systems developer position. Those positions can often be difficult to get. Android is definitely an in-demand skill and I think it would improve your chances of a job if you had an actual app on the Play store.