SKA Management CEO : “Invest in Millennials, Save the World”
Globetrotting humanitarian and CEO of SKA Management owes his success to his altruistic instinct. Sandeep Kumar Aggarwal, CEO, believes investing in the millennial generation is the best way to insure a strong future. He founded SKA Management, a holding company that manages three different subsidiary business ventures: Broadway Investment Group (BIG), The World Concierge, and SKA Medical Group. Aggarwal credits this success to his intuition, relationships, communication, and ability to inspire; which is the foundation of his business philosophy. In keeping with his commitment to community enrichment, SKA Management participates in Memorial High School’s Cooperative Educational Learning Program, in West New York, NJ. The program provides internships every year for accelerated students, helping them learn leadership, business operations and practical everyday professional skills. Aggarwal is very proud of how SKA Management educates their interns. “We teach them the functionality of everyday business operations,” says Aggarwal. “We start them off by enriching their interview skills. Along the way, they learn how to communicate with other employees, leaders in the firm, managers, and I. They get great experience and exposure of the corporate world that most high school students wouldn’t. Most college students don’t get to experience this until they graduate college and start working for a corporation. We help these kids get exposure early on, so they benefit learning new skills helping them advance their career”.
Each student is paired with a manager mentor with specialized skills within the company. For participating students, they not only get an
invaluable learning tool, but a resume that will continue to give them a competitive edge well after college. High schools like West New York’s Memorial.
High with extremely low dropout rates and high rates of achievements are once again becoming the norm.
“Competitive Universities, like ours that require high GPAs and a full roster of after school activities, having professional experience increases the chances of admission over other prospects,” says Melissa Downer, from the office of Admission for Princeton University. “Successful internships are a way for students to show they are serious about their career choice and are more valuable compared to a student with a 4.0 grade point average who has never had experience in a corporate environment.”
The opportunities granted by SKA Management to the students of West New York, NJ is especially important. Per the 2016 NJ School Performance Report for Memorial High School, 93.3% of youngsters enrolled are Hispanic. Hispanic Americans have made great strides in the last decade according the Pew Research Center, while the rates of high school graduation have soared, Hispanic Americans still lag behind other groups in obtaining 4-year degrees. An internship can be the difference between acceptance to a community college and a competitive four-year university.
Current SKA Management intern Adriana Carmona, is cognizant of the opportunity, “These kinds of opportunities are incredible.” The intern continued, “This has been my first experience for a company and I am so thankful I was given this opportunity, every day I leave here learning something new. I get inspiration from the managers and Sandeep Kumar Aggarwal to work harder in life.” For Aggarwal, it always comes back to what he feels is his “personal objective and purpose in life. “Giving back to the community is what we’re all about, that’s our mission, even though we are a private sector firm, we want to give back to our community as much as possible because without the community we wouldn’t be here.” He hopes his local investment will enrich the global as the interns at SKA Management become successful college graduates and entrepreneurs.