Kim Andersen

Founder and Director

Kim Andersen has a passion for language learning and teaching, cultural exchanges and international travel.  After moving to NY from Paraguay and teaching high school Spanish for two years,  she started Las Mariposas Spanish School when her own children were three and four years old.  What was meant to be a brief hiatus from teaching public school became Las Mariposas Spanish School and then Capital Region Language Center.

Kim started her ESL teaching career in the inner city in Washington DC and then taught in a bilingual and ESL math and science program in a San Francisco middle school.  The desire to teach abroad brought her and Chris, her husband-to-be, to Paraguay for four years.

Since the initial language school started Kim and her husband also opened Mango Tree Imports, a fair trade retail store in Ballston Spa.  This helps them stay connected to Paraguay and other parts of the world where Chris has lived and they have traveled while raising their kids in a small community with a global reach.

Circling back to her English as a Second Language (ESL) roots Kim opened Empire State English in 2012.  Empire State English current serves the adult ESL community in and around Albany.  By the summer of 2015 adults from around the world will be coming to Albany on F1 visas to study English and explore the beauty of the Adirondacks and surrounding areas.