Some classrooms are more than classrooms. They become the place where you stop being afraid of the wrong answer — where you laugh at your own mistakes and someone across the table laughs too, not at you, but with you, because they just made the same one.

That is the kind of classroom Angela May and Ana Espino built together in Wichita — a bilingual, face-to-face ESL and adult literacy class where people showed up week after week to do something hard and vulnerable: learn a new language as an adult. Their students came from different countries and different starting places, but they built something together. They learned English. They learned about Kansas — its history, its holidays, its culture. They practiced navigating a new city while holding tightly to the one they brought with them. They took risks, made mistakes, and kept coming back.

Ana knows exactly what that feels like. She was one of those students. She came to Angela’s class to strengthen her English, and she stayed for everything that came with it. She earned her diploma. Then her U.S. citizenship. Then her CNA certification. And then she came back — not as a student, but as a colleague and bilingual bridge, a familiar face at the door for the students who came after her. This school year, she and Angela were finally teaching side by side. Everything had come together.

In January 2026, the school announced it would close on May 26. For students who had spent months building trust, friendships, and courage — a screen was not a substitute. Angela and Ana couldn’t let that community dissolve. Neither could the students themselves. They made calls. They shared contacts. They helped their teachers find a way. Together, they found a safe landing place at Woodland United Methodist Church in Wichita, and Mariposa Landing was born from that collective refusal to quit.

“We didn’t start over. We landed somewhere new — with the same people, the same commitment, and more room to grow.”

Mariposa Landing is a low-cost, community-based ESL and adult literacy program. Classes meet Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Woodland United Methodist Church. Instruction is bilingual, trauma-informed, and built around the belief that the whole person matters, not just their grammar. We use CASAS-accredited assessments to track student growth. Angela holds professional ESOL certification with years of adult education experience. Ana brings bilingual fluency, deep community trust, and the credibility that comes from having walked the same road as the students she serves.

Both women are committed to this work the way you commit to something that matters — not just professionally, but personally. They volunteer their evenings while maintaining their livelihoods, because they believe the community they helped build deserves to continue. Mariposa Landing is pursuing 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and building sustainable funding. But the classes are already happening. The door is already open. The community is already here.

There is a gap in Wichita that most people don’t see: adults who hold a diploma or GED but still need English support, and adults who are undocumented with no access to publicly funded programs. For them, affordable in-person ESL is nearly impossible to find. Mariposa Landing exists to fill that gap — with open doors, fair pricing, and a hardship accommodation process that treats every student with dignity.