![Former Palo Alto Unified School District school board candidate and Pathwise (formerly Dreamcatchers) Executive Director Nichole Chiu-Wang speaks on Thursday at a Q&A session to The Paly Incubator class at Palo Alto High School. According to Chiu-Wang, Pathwise is launching a new summer certification program. High school students can still mentor middle schoolers as a volunteer. “We [Pathwise] are very excited to be doing that, because we want to make sure that our high schoolers feel empowered to be leaders,” Chiu-Wang said. “I truly believe that through volunteering or through being of service, or through mentorship and those relationships you form, not only are we creating a sense of belonging for our middle school students, but also for our volunteers.”](https://anthromagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/guesdt-speaker-4-710x1200.jpg)
Former Palo Alto Unified School District school board candidate Nicole Chiu-Wang says she is focusing on Pathwise (formerly Dreamcatchers) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after announcing she won’t run for school board again.
Chiu-Wang announced her decision to the Journalism Incubator at Palo Alto High School during a Q&A session this Thursday.
Chiu-Wang said she decided not to run for the school board so she can focus on social justice issues through her existing positions at Pathwise and at the NAACP, which would not be possible as a school board member.
“I’m confident that I can perhaps be even more effective doing activist work instead of being an elected official, in which you have many things that you have to focus on … that can perhaps distract from the work that I’m passionate about, which is things around equity and specifically racial justice,” Chiu-Wang said.
One of her many efforts is her work at Pathwise (originally Dreamcatchers), founded in 2008 by a group of Stanford students to address the lack of free tutoring resources for underserved middle school students.
“We do things to help support our students who are facing the opportunity gap, mostly because of income level, socioeconomic status, race, all of those things,” Chiu-Wang said. “We’re there to help our students find a place of belonging, to create a place of belonging for them.”
Chiu-Wang is also advocating for school policies that combat anti-Black language and other forms of discrimination, serving as education committee chair for the Silicon Valley San Jose Chapter of the NAACP.
“We [the NAACP] are proactively going to all the superintendents, every single superintendent, for every school district in Santa Clara County,” Chiu-Wang said. “We’re going to be trying to get sit-downs with them [school districts] to propose policies and practices and training for staff, teachers, students, families, about anti black language and racial slurs that we have seen increasing even down to the elementary school level in their use.”
Chiu-Wang said she was approached by the NAACP after her campaign for the school board was unsuccessful in 2024. Before the 2024 election, she was also a candidate for the 2022 election.
Chiu-Wang said there are many opportunities for all students to turn their passion for justice into action, such as participating in civic demonstrations or volunteering. She highlights that Pathwise takes in all kinds of student effort in social justice.
“One of the things I would like our students to know is that there are so many different ways you can get plugged in … especially when it relates to social justice, to racial justice,” Chiu-Wang said. “You don’t have to start your own nonprofit. You don’t have to start your own organization. There are ones you can tap into. And so many of us want the youth to be involved, want to hear from you, want to empower you to have a voice, to be heard. … So we are open. We very much value what you all bring to the table.”
Chiu-Wang addressed a current challenge that Pathwise and other non-profit organizations are facing. She said that in an effort to battle the current funding cuts, non-profit organizations often collaborate with each other to serve the community better without more funds. For Pathwise, the lack of student mentors is also a concern.
“We do not have enough student mentors,” Chiu-Wang said. “And from what I understand from talking to our mentors, you [students] all have so much on your plate. There is a lot of pressure to take X number of APs and do all these other things and volunteer and all these different things that you’re involved in, which is so much. But what we’ve seen then is that we have less high school students that are able to participate in a program that I know would be good for so many.”
Despite all the challenges Pathwise has faced, Chiu-Wang shows her dedication in continuing her effort to fight for justice and equity.
Editor’s note: The headline was changed on 2/24/26 from “Former school board candidate Nicole Chiu-Wang announces she won’t run again” to “Former school board candidate Nicole Chiu-Wang announces she won’t run this time”