By Calvin Henry and Martin Romero
This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter.
For some Los Angeles community college students, taking classes at night is their only option. Some have daytime jobs. Others must care for family members during the day. There are also the unlucky few who couldn’t find a spot in afternoon or morning classes.
Whatever the reason, attending college after dark comes with a host of challenges besides staying awake for lectures.
Nearly 180,000 of the over 1.6 million California college students counted for Spring 2026 were classified as evening students, meaning they took at least one evening class and no day classes, according to preliminary California Community College Chancellors’ Office data. EdSource reporters this summer embedded themselves with more than a dozen evening students from five L.A. community colleges. Here are their stories.
Learning English after hours
Vanium Vilchez sits in his ESL classroom at Los Angeles Valley College on July 20.Credit: Martin Romero / EdSource
Night classes make it possible for Vanium Vilchez to learn English. The 34-year-old usually works at Norms, a diner-style restaurant chain in the San Fernando Valley, during the day before his 6 p.m. English as a second language (ESL) class at Los Angeles Valley College, which lasts nearly two-and-a-half hours. By the time he gets home at 8:30 p.m., he barely has time to make dinner and get ready for bed by 10 p.m., so he can be up for work by 6 a.m. the next day.
“I have to find a way to (make) sacrifices so I can be able to learn,” Vilchez said in Spanish.
Vilchez, an asylee from Nicaragua who is applying for permanent U.S. residency, said that learning English is part of his plan to build a more stable future in the country. He hopes that learning the language will eventually prepare him for the citizenship process, help him find a better-paying job and potentially pursue a career in nursing.
“I came to this country because of the opportunities here,” Vilchez said. “I feel that if you don’t know English, it’s a barrier to continuing to move forward in this country.”
Balancing class and caregiving
Alexander Gutierrez walks by the Student Services building at Pierce College in Woodland Hills after class on July 22. Credit: Calvin Henry / EdSource
After graduating from El Camino Real Charter High School in June, Alexander Gutierrez considered attending a four-year university once he learned he could access financial aid. But the thought of venturing farther from home and leaving behind his younger brother, who has a rare genetic condition that affects mobility in various parts of the body, digestion and intellectual development, steered him toward his local community college.
Gutierrez, 18, took the first step this summer toward obtaining a neuroscience degree by enrolling in a prerequisite chemistry course at Pierce College. On Mondays and Wednesdays, Gutierrez stayed on campus until 6:30 p.m.
Gutierrez’s schedule in high school allowed him to care for his younger brother, Antonio, in the afternoons. His rigid college schedule, however, required more coordination among family members.
“I had to take care of my brother a lot, and that made it very difficult,” Gutierrez said. “I had to time my arrival so that I would get here as late as possible (before) my lecture.”
Antonio Gutierrez has Mowat-Wilson syndrome. He is unable to walk and doesn’t know how to chew, so Alexander feeds, bathes and changes his diapers when his parents are not home.
“The doctors have made it pretty clear that he will never be able to care for himself,” Alexander Gutierrez said. “So there’s always gonna have to be someone there for Antonio, which is one of the reasons I decided to come to Pierce. I wanted to stay closer to my brother. He’s very attached to me.”
Teaching through exhaustion
Aniko Guba guides her students through an English grammar worksheet with her evening ESL class at Los Angeles Valley College on July 15. Credit: Calvin Henry / EdSource
Aniko Guba, an adjunct professor who teaches English as a second language at Los Angeles Valley College, took ESL classes and earned an associate’s degree at the college before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University, Northridge. She wanted to teach students like her.
The professor has taught ESL courses for three years. Guba’s students range from having little or no experience with writing in English and the next step above. This summer, she taught a 6 p.m. ESL class.
Guba said that her ESL students tend to be Armenian, Russian and Hispanic. Many of her students are immigrants and arrived at her two-hour evening class exhausted from a day of work. Guba said that many of her students are at different stages of their lives, with ages ranging from 18 to 80.
“I have youngsters who cannot go to high school anymore because they turned 18 when they moved to this country,” Guba said. “I have students who are actively working still and they have to make a living, and I have those who are retired.”
Guba said her morning students tend to have more energy and participation compared to her evening students who come in with the stress and baggage of a long day.
“They are really tired,” Guba said. “I have to make my lesson really interesting and engaging. I have to make them move. As soon as they sit down, they are like half asleep because they work through the day.”
Because her students have busy schedules, Guba often does not assign homework. Instead, she encourages them to listen to their favorite songs in English to learn the lyrics or watch videos or TV shows in English.
Guba said she hopes campus services stay open later for evening students, and that non-credit ESL students receive more in-depth student orientations to help future students.
Unlike morning or day students, evening students often aren’t able to access on-campus services during normal business hours. Guba said that she hopes college administrators become “more supportive and understanding of those people who are coming at night.” She added that evening students “already have their fair share of work (during) the day, and they just don’t know where to ask questions and how to proceed with things.”
Learning a skill
Garcia walks to her car after her final hand-sewing class of the summer semester at Los Angeles City College on July 21. Credit: Calvin Henry / EdSource
For Jessica Garcia, mastering sewing is important so she can be resourceful with her clothes, a lesson her parents have taught her from a young age. Since starting her sewing journey in spring 2025, she’s completed numerous classes, including a pattern-making class, a button-up shirt sewing class and an alterations class.
This summer, Garcia, 32, finished her ninth sewing class at Los Angeles City College.
“Growing up, my parents didn’t teach me to be wasteful,” Garcia said. “So it hurts me to donate certain clothes that just need to be hemmed or it needs to be fixed. That’s why I wanted to take this sewing class, because I have a lot of clothes that just need a simple quick fix that I know that I could probably do myself at home if I learned the proper skill.”
Garcia took a two-hour hand-sewing class at LACC that ended at 9 p.m., juggling a full-time job as a local government accountant. The late-evening class fit her schedule.
“I tried taking a 5 p.m. class once, but I would always be late because of my job,” Garcia said. “So I try to take it later now.”
While taking an evening class works better with her schedule, Garcia said that the campus feels scarier at night because there are fewer people around. Its openness to the public during the evening contributes to her sense of insecurity.
She remembered a time when a woman from a sewing class she took last semester rushed back into the classroom in a panic after seeing a man in the women’s restroom. According to Garcia, the woman said that the man seemed “unstable” and the teacher called campus police.
“It was scary because you wanna feel comfortable knowing that you could just use the restroom when it’s needed and it’s gonna be fine,” Garcia said. ” You don’t know who or what kind of people can come into the school because sometimes it doesn’t seem like they’re all students.”
Garcia said that she hasn’t had any negative encounters herself.
“You would think that most people are students, but when someone doesn’t look like a student, you kind of question, ‘What are they doing here?’” Garcia said. “But for the most part, I just encounter people trying to charge their phones or things like that and nothing bad.”
After the library closes
Ethan Borokhovich walks up the stairs at Santa Monica College’s library en route to his Chemistry 19 class across campus on July 23. Credit: Martin Romero / EdSource
The campus library was already closed by the time Ethan Borokhovich finished his chemistry class at Santa Monica College shortly before 8 p.m. One evening, that meant the pre-medical student could not print a lab worksheet his professor had required in class.
So Borokhovich, 22, drove 20 miles back home to use his aging printer, which malfunctioned and caused his home’s lights to flicker after he changed the ink cartridges. The next day, he returned to campus early to print his worksheet in the library, but said that the disruption hurt his exam score later that day.
“It certainly impacted me negatively that the library was closed and it’s not like I needed any person to be there,” Borokhovich said. “I just needed to use a computer for five minutes and print something.”
His class meets from 2:15 to 7:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday. After he drives home, he usually eats, decompresses and begins homework at around 9 p.m., sometimes working until midnight. He said that his schedule has affected other parts of his routine, making it harder to exercise and get a full night’s sleep.
“(My class) definitely derails my whole day,” Borokhovich said. “It is my whole day on those days, which is negatively impactful for me.”
Borokhovich said that despite the long commute, hours and impact on his schedule, he’ll do whatever it takes to finish his prerequisites and eventually apply for medical school.
“Whatever it is, whatever I gotta do, I gotta do it as much as it sucks.”
Calvin Henry is a student at Pierce College studying journalism. Martin Romero is a journalism and political science major at East Los Angeles College. They are members of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.
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Previously published on EdSource
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Photo Credit: Martin Romero / EdSource / Jessica Garcia walks to her car after her evening hand-sewing class at Los Angeles City College on July 21. “The evening it’s definitely more scary,” Garcia said. “It’s darker out and there are fewer people walking around.”
