Shortly after joining By The Hand Club in 3rd grade, Malik started making really good grades. He kept that up until his 8th-grade year when his friends started calling him names like nerd and lame. So to fit in, he started ditching By The Hand Club, making bad grades and hanging out on the block with his friends. In his words, “We were up to no good,” which led to a mob action charge with the police for jumping a boy. This was a wakeup for Malik; he decided to come back to By The Hand Club to have a safe place to go after school and make something of himself.

He got his grades back up and finished 8th grade with straight A’s and went on to Urban Prep Academy, where he was number one in his class every year since his freshman year. He graduated last spring having been accepted by 20 colleges, including Morehouse College and Howard University. Both historic black colleges offered him a full-ride scholarship! He also received a Bill Gates Millennium scholarship, one of 1,000 students awarded with a good-through-graduation, full scholarship at the college of their choice!

Malik is now attending Howard University!