Though she originally had designs on being a corporate lawyer when she arrived on Grounds, Chloe Barbosa discovered her path in business early on.
When it came to her major, Barbosa says she initially saw business as a way to complement her pre-law ambitions. “Doing business as an undergraduate was a risk. I wanted to understand the financials behind any deal-making that would happen in the future,” she recalls.
As Barbosa has advanced through McIntire, that shift has deepened. “Anyone who wants to be involved in leadership or to have an analytical approach should definitely get involved in business,” she says. Now in her fourth year, she recognizes how much her confidence and capabilities have grown since joining the School. Through coursework, internships, and leadership roles, she says she’s learned “to take initiative, be adaptable, and manage uncertainty,” skills that continue to strengthen her understanding of what it means to work in wealth management. That growth helped her enter her internships with clarity about how she wanted to use her strengths.
Learning through Experience
Her introduction to wealth management began early. “First year, first semester, I joined this organization called Alpha Kappa Psi, which is a co-ed business fraternity,” Barbosa says. “They did a really good job of breaking down the core business sectors, consulting, marketing, and finance. I learned about finance and wealth management; that’s when I thought, ‘I can take my qualities of being an extrovert, loving numbers, loving stories, and help people out. It’s the perfect career for me.’”
Barbosa’s internships further helped her see how she wanted to build her career and gave her hands-on experience in the process. “After my second year, I interned with Fidelity Investments as an Asset Management Researcher,” she says. “I pitched every other day, constantly looking at new consumer-facing stocks and creating decisions for the portfolio manager.”
The following summer, she gained a new perspective at J.P. Morgan. “That was a lot more individual facing,” she explains. “A lot of networking and prospecting. Having both of those experiences was really helpful—it confirmed that I want to be around people and help them grow their investments and capital.”
She quickly learned what type of work fit her best. “I didn’t want something deal facing,” she says. “I wanted to work with people.”
Lessons That Translate
Barbosa says that her time in McIntire’s Integrated Core curriculum directly prepared her for the intensity and teamwork of those professional settings. Working closely with a small group of classmates taught her how to lead collaboratively, empower others, and make informed decisions under pressure—much like the dynamics she encountered on her team at J.P. Morgan. Those long nights solving complex business challenges mirrored the energy and commitment she later brought to investment projects and client work. The experience also strengthened her reliability and independence, qualities she found essential in fast-paced banking environments.
Her Integrated Core project with corporate sponsor CarMax offered an especially impactful connection between classroom and career. Having to make suggestions from incomplete information, Barbosa and her team relied heavily on their research and professors’ guidance to deliver sound strategic recommendations—a process she later echoed when seeking feedback from senior bankers on her internship assignments. That ability to draw on mentors and synthesize insights, she says, has become a defining feature of how she learns and leads.
Now, as a fourth-year, Barbosa continues to build on those lessons through classes that expand her global perspective and give her an appreciation for how courses progress from third year to fourth year at the Comm School. “This semester, I’m taking a class with Paul Seaborn called Global Management,” she says. “We look at global news, global macroeconomic tendencies, microeconomic tendencies, global events, and try to make sense of it from a business side. Those are experiences that people who are at banks will talk about all day, every day.”
Representing, Leading, Moving Forward
Beyond the classroom, Barbosa has shared her McIntire journey with others as an ambassador for the B.S. in Commerce Program since her third year. “I definitely saw myself as an ambassador from day one,” she says. “Being Chloe means I’m mixed: I’m African American, Caribbean, and Hispanic. I come from a culturally ambiguous background. That really connects with people.”
She says representing McIntire to prospective students has been one of the most rewarding aspects of her experience. “I get to speak about my time during the Integrated Core. I get to speak about my internships, especially for those who are interested in finance, and give them that scope before they even make a decision,” Barbosa says. That visibility carries special meaning for her. “I think I am one of the only ambassadors who is Black of any kind by the time that I was a fourth-year,” Barbosa says. “Being a voice and advocate for those individuals can give prospective students a firsthand account of what it’s like [to be a McIntire student] and is something that I really enjoy doing.”
Now approaching graduation in the spring, Barbosa is channeling what she’s learned into her next steps. “This is me reinventing myself but still being Chloe, speaking to new individuals, and creating new connections,” she says, excited to discover where she will land and bring her skills to a full-time role.
In the meantime, her priorities remain clear. “Let’s finish the semester strong and get a job in the process,” she says confidently. “That’ll make me very, very happy.”
