The Young Investors Society Global Youth Investment Summit winners from the Global Stock Pitch and Case Study Competition each won a Summer internship at an investment firm.
Below, you can read Makayo’s experience at Advisory Group for Life.
“This summer, after winning the case study competition at the Young Investors Society
Global Youth Investment Summit 2025, I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of an
internship with the Advisory Group for Life. As an intern, I learned from Steven Barrus, a
financial consultant at this company, about how a professional develops financial plans that can
support clients before and throughout retirement. We discussed the factors that go into a financial
plan and how to budget properly for them. From this internship, I also learned about the
importance of current events and understanding how the economy works long-term, including the
different ways that money can be invested. Mr. Barrus demonstrated to me and my fellow interns
how to use the “Buckets of Money” strategy, which is a very useful tool to properly allocate
capital for different areas of life. I learned that finance isn’t about making the most money from
investing in a certain stock, but that it’s also about understanding your client and being confident
in decision-making. There’s a lot that goes into building a relationship and trust with a client. In
one of our meetings, Mr. Barrus mentioned a quote, which resonated with me, from Warren
Buffett, who said, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” To
me, this quote means that when you invest, you need to be disciplined and not fall into the
decisions of your emotions. As a final project for this internship, I collaborated with the other
interns to create a retirement plan, which used the techniques and tools that we learned
throughout the internship. Overall, this internship impacted my life goals because it introduced
me to a new area of finance that I hadn’t known before. This is a career where I could help
people reach their goals with my passion for finance and investing. Thank you so much to Mr.
Barrus and Young Investors Society for giving me this outstanding opportunity!”
~Makayo C.
Delbarton School, New Jersey