Helping Students Get Ahead

When entrepreneur Rossana Llenado was a college student at UP Los Baños, she followed a light schedule to accommodate all her activities. Mornings were blocked off for her Communications Arts classes, while afternoons were for her work as student assistant. By 5 p.m., she’d be deeply immersed in various national organizations, as well as for soccer practice. But Friday nights were chiefly for “love life,” and weekends were spent on settling domestic chores.

Rossana laughs as she reminisces on those hectic days, when her inexhaustible energy made her a real student achiever. This drive to succeed, apparently, extends to the way she goes about her life. As a young girl, she already knew what year she was going to marry and when she would open her very own business.

Her organized approach to life worked well enough because Rossana managed to accomplish all these plans–and more. She is now wife to a businessman, mother of four kids, and owner of AHEAD Tutorial & Review Center–the most visible center for auxiliary education in the country today.

As an offshoot of her active student days where she strived for excellence, this 34-year-old entrepreneur dedicates her business savvy to helping Filipino students enter the best schools and, thus, improve their chances for a successful life.

But AHEAD does more than polish a pupil’s recall of Algebra, Chemistry and Reading Comprehension. It is the only center in the country that offers a test-oriented study system, which is widely practised in American tutorial programs.

“Our test-based review eliminates the need for students to study everything that was discussed in their school,” Rossana explains. “Kung ano yung lalabas sa exam, yun lang ang ituturo namin. That way, hindi naaaksaya yung time, at hindi naiinip sa review.”

AHEAD’s patterned reviews have consistently helped high-school students pass the entrance exams of the country’s top universities. Enrollees to the center are given a diagnostic test, which gives students an idea what else they need to study in order to pass the exam they are reviewing for. Simulated exams are also given, so they can develop test-taking techniques that will enable them to think fast and catch up with time limits.

Rossana proudly claims that AHEAD has been instrumental in opening the door of opportunity for many young people where education is concerned. Students who harbored no hope of passing the UPCAT, for instance, found themselves being included in the 8,000 accepted applicants out of the 80,000 hopefuls each year.

But the center doesn’t focus on the college entrance exams alone, as it also offers reviews for admission to preschool, high school, graduate studies and Law school. There are also foreign language classes, and one-on-one or group tutorials for students of all levels. People taking U.S standardized tests like the SATs and TOEFL can also go to the center for review.

Involved as she is in students’ academic pursuits, it is ironic to not that Rossana is not into teaching. “I’m not qualified to teach,” she humbly insists. “Kasi teachers have a significant role in life. Their influence is such that if they do something wrong, the repercussions would be great. So natatakot ako sa responsibility na yon. Ang laki ng tingin ko sa mga teacher. They mold the country talaga.”

Why Rossana decided to open this kind of business is an interesting story in itself. As a student working for the Daily Globe newspaper, she was given the privilege to draft a speech about education for then senator Alberto Romulo. It was in the course of her research that she learned first-hand the sorry situation of the country’s students and teachers.

“That’s when I realized na sana later on makapagpaaral ako ng magagaling na students, who will eventually become good teachers,” she shares. “Kasi the problem with most parents is that they tell their intelligent kids, ‘Ang galing mo naman, anak. Magiipon ako para maging abugado ka o doktor.’ Pero pag bobo ang anak, they would say, ‘Sige, mag-teacher ka na lang.’ That isn’t right! Sana yung magagaling ang magturo para dumami pa ang magagaling.”

This deep concern for the deteriorating quality of education is what pushed her to open AHEAD in 1995. Initially located in Kapitolyo, Pasig, the small center drew so many enrollees that it was later transferred to Katipunan, where other established review schools can be found. Now, AHEAD also has branches at Robinsons Galleria, SM Megamall, and Greenhills.

AHEAD manages to hold its own when pitted against its older competitors. Rossana claims they have the highest passing percentage among reviewees in the review course industry. Their formula is such that most of the test items they teach are what come out in the actual exam. Some of their enrollees even claim that a lot of the topics taught at the center was never introduced to them in their school.

“We like to be ahead in a lot of things, that’s why we named the center AHEAD,” Rossana points out. “We’ve introduced a lot of firsts in the industry. We were the first to open a review center in a mall, and the first to publish an UPCAT review book. We also organize events like a nationwide Chemistry quiz contest and the first-ever school fair held inside a mall.”

More than its aggressive stance in the industry, the center prides itself in its excellent teaching staff. Rossana says they only accept young teachers who held top honors in UP, Ateneo and La Salle. Even then, applicants have to pass their stringent exam and interview process. Thus, enrollees can expect only the best from AHEAD’s tutors.

This meticulousness in her choice of teachers stems from Rossana’s unwavering belief that only the most intelligent people have the right to mold the minds of students. So far, this dictum has produced outstanding results, as the center has helped all of its enrollees to not only pass their exams but get top marks as well.

But more than helping Filipino students excel through AHEAD’s review formula, Rossana hopes that more accomplished people would share their knowledge and expertise through teaching.

“I always tell our teachers, ‘Kahit saan pa kayo makarating later on, whether you end up becoming a doctor or a lawyer, pwede ba magturo pa rin kayo?’ ” Rossana says. “They have a responsibility to help others because they’re the cream of the crop. Pag hindi magaling ang nagtuturo, magiging bobo ang lahi natin. And that’s how teachers are the real heroes of our county.”

Having made that assertion, she bemoans the current “brain-drain” phenomenon where many teachers prefer to find work in other countries. Rossana herself did not realize the depth of her concern until she was offered the chance to earn big money by recruiting Filipino teachers to work abroad.

“I have an aunt who works for the Department of Education in the U.S. and she told me that I would be paid $3,000 to $5,000 for every teacher that I recruit,” she recounts. “That means if I get 10 teachers, I could easily make P1.5 million! When I earn that much, naturally I won’t stop with just ten.”

Any practical person would have grabbed that opportunity to earn big bucks fast. But Rossana found that she couldn’t do it, not when so many Filipino students are being deprived of quality education because of a dearth of good teachers.

“I suppose that’s the kind of value I have about work. I don’t care much about financial gain,” she muses. “Kahit tabunan nila ako ng pera, I won’t send teachers abroad dahil mauubos ang teachers dito! A lot of schools now settle for inexperienced teachers because all the good ones have already left the country. It’s sad.”

The country’s poor economic situation adversely affects Filipino students in more ways than the lack of qualified teachers. “Kulang ang support ng parents ngayon sa kanilang children because both mother and father have to work,” Rossana observes. “It’s okay if the parents could afford a tutor’s services, otherwise napapabayaan ang studies ng bata. But isn’t that the reason why they’re working so hard? So their kids could have a good education?

“Sometimes parents prepare for their children’s future by getting college plans. Nagkaroon nga ng college plan ang anak mo, hindi naman makapasok sa target school mo kasi napabayaan ang pagaaral. Wala na nga yung mother and father, wala pang tutor, kawawa yung bata. He’ll lag behind and eventually lose interest in studying.”

Rossana insists that hastily done tutoring sessions with their parents aren’t enough. For one, working parents are usually too tired to adequately address their child’s learning needs. “Baka mag-away pa sila habang nagtuturuan,” she says. “A good tutor would have the right skills to help a student. Besides, mas maganda if a child can just spend quality time on bonding with his parents after school.”

Perhaps, much of Rossana’s passion for improving the plight of students stems from her concern for her own young children, whom she insists on rearing without the aid of a nanny. Thus, even as she visits the branches of AHEAD, she still finds time to breastfeed her one-year-old baby and run another business–a preschool called World Prep. It’s incredible how she can manage such a formidable work sked, but Rossana admits that a slower pace would have bored her, especially since she’d always been kept busy even as a college student.

In fact, Rossana’s number one dream is “to establish a foundation that will promote all the concerns of students and teachers,” she avers. “Hindi lang siya yung nagbibigay ng scholarships. This foundation will work to encourage more Filipinos to pursue a career in teaching, and to lobby the government for necessary educational reforms.”

And this plan has already been lined up in Rossana’s to-do list – which definitely means that it’s as good as done. 