Grantee Spotlight: Pathwise
Building Confidence, Connection, and Community
Serving the Palo Alto middle school community since 2008, Pathwise (formerly known as DreamCatchers) creates safe, supportive spaces where students from under-resourced communities can build confidence, connection, and academic skills.
This vision is a long-held passion of current Executive Director Nicole Chiu-Wang, whose history of connecting with students in marginalized communities through volunteer work in college has greatly influenced her work with the organization. This experience, coupled with her former careers in tech and law, pushes Nicole to find innovative and exciting opportunities to expand Pathwise.
“I saw both the opportunity gap in education and the powerful role that consistent support, belonging, and access to learning can play in changing a young person’s path. Pathwise is my way of turning that early calling into sustained action: creating spaces where students feel seen, supported, and empowered to imagine and pursue their own futures,” says Nicole.
Guided by Nicole’s vision, Pathwise serves as Palo Alto’s only free, nonprofit, after-school enrichment program, preparing middle-schoolers to thrive in high school and beyond. Currently operating in three middle schools with over 100 students, they are looking to not only prepare their middle schoolers academically, but socially and emotionally.
Pathwise fosters student growth by helping them build a community that will follow them beyond middle school and that allows them to explore who they are and what interests them. In partnership with a group of Stanford Graduate School of Education students, they supply their students with a customized social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum that is grade-level specific, delving into topics like identity and purpose.
Having dependable and engaging mentors plays a huge role in cultivating this learning space and positive experience for its students, providing them with a sense of belonging, helping students believe in and become their best selves.
The mentorship at Pathwise truly encapsulates the mission of the organization, and even influenced the change of their name in 2025, a chance to better align with their mission and move away from culturally appropriating the symbol of DreamCatchers, which did not currently reflect the community they serve. As a nod to mentors, the name Pathwise alludes to the high school mentors being able to provide wisdom to their middle schoolers as they chart their own path to success and growth, no matter what path they choose.
This new name also provides Pathwise with a reintroduction to the community, giving their organization more visibility and the opportunity to partner with other nonprofits to help give its students a well-rounded experience. Like connecting with Hidden Villa to supply students with scholarships for summer camp to give them the same opportunities as their peers, even in the summer. Or most recently, partnering with Siren for a Know Your Rights training and a Family Preparedness workshop, providing needed support around issues currently affecting their families, and supplying parents with the resources they need.
The best way that Pathwise has learned to serve its students is by leveraging the incredible ecosystem of nonprofits they’re a part of, working together to give students the best opportunities.
Pathwise’s goal is to create a space where middle school students can confidently thrive and know that they have a community they can depend on. As a community, it is time to step up and help support that space for middle schoolers. If you are interested in learning more about Pathwise, becoming a mentor, or have programming/special set of skills to teach their students, visit their website today.
