Alumni Profile:
Malika Lindsay

Class of 1990

Malika Lindsay attended Oak Grove from 1984 to 1990 when she graduated as the school’s first Black student. She currently lives in Mississippi, where she works as a college counselor and independent educational consultant.

This alumni profile was featured in the 2024 Annual Fundraising Tea program.

Joining Oak Grove

“I grew up in Philadelphia and joined Oak Grove when I was 11 years old. My mother, a civil rights activist and progressive thinker, had attended a Krishnamurti talk in New York, where she met Mark Lee, Oak Grove’s then Head of School. I was gifted and needed an academically stimulating environment. Mark was very encouraging and offered me a spot. My mother worked multiple jobs to get me to Ojai and after that, sponsorships and benefactors made my time at Oak Grove possible.

Boarding at Besant House

“Being a boarder at Besant House was a huge culture shock at first because I had never been a vegetarian or lived in a non-Black environment. With nine students in my class, we were the largest in the history of Oak Grove high school. We were the first class to tell the school we needed grades. Our pioneering work at Oak Grove was pushing for a more traditional academic format so we could go through the college application process.

First Class to India

“We were also the first class to go to India. The nine of us connected with about 20 kids from Brockwood Park in the UK, and we broke up into groups and rotated through the different K schools all over India for six weeks. It was extraordinary.

Malika (center), Group D, 1984-85 School Year

“Our pioneering work at Oak Grove was pushing for a more traditional academic format so we could go through the college application process.”

Life after Oak Grove

“After Oak Grove, I joined Lafayette College where I graduated with a B.A. in English and Philosophy. Inspired by my mother, I started the Black student literary magazine there, as well as the Black women’s organization, and I was president of the Apartheid awareness organization. I realized that I really cared about college and people’s abilities to do this cool thing that I had gotten to do. So I decided to start a career in college admissions and took my first job at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. I was there for three years, then returned to Ojai where I ran Oak Grove’s boarding program at Besant House for a year and created a college counseling program. I was 23 and a single mom to 14 kids from seven different countries, which was amazing.

“After a year I moved back to Pennsylvania and returned to Lafayette to work in admissions for six years. Since 2005 I have worked as a college counselor in independent and charter schools all over the country – from Arizona to Georgia, Maryland, and New Jersey. It’s been an amazing ride, and I have never looked back because I’m doing the work that I love doing.

“I finally settled in Mississippi, where I joined Jackson Preparatory School, the state’s largest independent school, as Director of College Counseling and the only Black adult on the campus who did not cook or clean. It was a radical move for the school to put a Black woman in the seat that made the school college-preparatory, and we were wildly successful.

“After eight years, I moved on and am now the college counselor for a virtual school, Optima Academy, as well as an independent consultant working with families all over the country.

Reflecting on Oak Grove

“When I reflect on my time at Oak Grove, I think what’s stuck with me most is how deeply I value my friendships. Learning that you can be thoroughly loved by people you’re not related to or who don’t look like you was probably my biggest lesson. After Oak Grove I never had to be taught how to be kind and respectful or to understand that everyone is going through something, and this has influenced how I have raised my son. He’s kind and respectful to everyone, and while I wasn’t consciously trying to teach him that, I believe those values stemmed from my time at Oak Grove School.”

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