Big decisions at WoW are made by the whole community, but the Community Council (which is made up of an Indigenous woman, a Black Woman, and Asian-American man) handles smaller, day-to-day decisions. Here’s a little bit of background on some of the Council members:

Jennifer (she/her) has three decades of experience facilitating learning for both children and adults, and for the last 16 years, has directed learning & development projects for national education nonprofit. Her current projects involve helping educators and researchers to work respectfully with Indigenous communities, centering social and emotional well-being in education, and ensuring that educational interventions have equitable impacts for persistently underserved children and communities. 

“What I love about WoW is the abundance of generosity and care that WoW children and families have for each other. We create the kind of community that I want my child living in and growing in. And our community is blessed to spend our days in nature, in the sun, wind, and rain, on the land and in the waters of the bay. We are a gift to us and nature is a gift to us. I also love that my child is excited to get out of bed and get to WoW every single morning. Knowing your child is so happy with how they are living their lives is hard to best.”

Steve (He/Him) has worked in social change for 30+ years. He helped to pass laws that protect our water, reduce the influence of money in politics, and protect consumers from predatory lenders. He currently supports non-profits to make a more sizable impact on the societal problems they seek to address. 

“I’ve had a great deal of success in my professional life but almost none of that came from things I learned in school. I learned about the political process by being an active participant in it. I learned how to do spreadsheets when I coordinated a petition drive in which we collected more than 1 million signatures from hundreds of organizations and activists across the country. I learned how to do human-centered, social impact because I was genuinely interested in it. 

I love self-directed education (SDE) because it avoids forcing our kids to learn topics of an adult’s choosing, but instead allows the learners to explore their own passions. And I love WoW’s specific version of SDE because of the amazing people in our community… we have a tattoo artist, an expert in conflict resolution (informed by restorative justice and equity principles), a professional musician, an education innovator, and a merry band of budding jugglers, explorers, game players, innovators, and changemakers.”