Ulirang Ina awardee for 2003 Rossana Llenado is every inch the modern career woman – strong-willed and extremely fond of grand ambitions. She is also every inch a family person – warm, affectionate, and deeply proud of her children. Clad in polo shirt and jeans and with hardly any makeup on, you would easily mistake the 34-year-old mother of four for one of her young tutors and lecturers at AHEAD Tutorial and Review Center where she is the president. She’s a hands-on type of executive, involved in all activities from recruitment to accounting to marketing. “I try to be on top of things—checking even the minor details of our projects, making sure that they’re the best we could come up with,” she says.

Rossana’s twin sons were only babies when she organized AHEAD nearly eight years ago. It was brought about by her desire to help students get into the country’s top schools, improve their academic standing, and enhance their capabilities to become highly productive individuals. “Coming from UP myself, I know what a good school can do for a person. May opportunities are open to graduates of UP, Ateneo, La Salle, and I believe students should be encouraged to aspire to enter these institutions. Young people should be taught to hope, big hopes, dream big dreams. Otherwise, they will be satisfied with just ‘good enough’.”

The center had very humble beginnings. According to Rossana, the first couple of years weren’t easy for she had to juggle between being a mother and a wife, and operating the center. “I would work very late at night, when the children were asleep. I would work until 3 or 4 in the mornig then start attending to clients by 7 a.m.,” says the recipient of the Gold Quill merit award from the International Association of Business Communicators last February for her projest “Get AHEAD Gimik@Glorietta,” a school fair in a mall.

Her sacrifices were not for naught for the center now has several branches – Katipunan Avenue, Ortigas, Greenhills, SM Megamall and will soon open in Robinsons Galleria. It also conducts review courses for the UP, Ateneo and La Salle entrance exams in various venues into book publishing (with the release of the first ever review book for the UP College Entrance Test and other student guides), training, and human resource.

The UP Los Baños Communication Arts graduate is always coming up with new ideas for both AHEAD and WorldPrep. Having done a lot for the former, she’s now ready to focus on the latter with plans on making it “one of the best preschools in the country.”

To balance her home and work life, Roddana located her residential compound to allow her to keep an eye on her young kids while attending to business operations. Nicolo, Paolo and Darla can drop by Mommy’s office anytime to bring her fresh flowers from the garden or report about their day. Rossana is also probably the only company president who schedules business meetings around her infant child’s feeding time. She plans to breastfeed Meg until she’s a year old, as she did with her other kids.

Rossana couldn’t help but beam when talking about her children. Nicolo and Paolo, whose IQs are within superior levels, are doing very well in Ateneo where they will be in grade 2 this coming school year. Darla, though shy at times, is a precious little artist, decorating their home with art projects and drawings she made in pre-school. Babay Megan, meanwhile, brightens up the Llenado home with her cheerful antics.

The young mom admits that managing a business and a home at the dame time is an extremely difficult act. But hard work is certainly not alien to Rossana. She follows her instincts and does not back away from big challenges. She truly is one step ahead – in both professional and personal realms.