InLife Sheroes Awardee Mina Ballesteros: Empowering Rural Education in Mindoro

For Mina Cabugao-Ballesteros, empowerment does not begin in a boardroom. It begins in a field.

The Executive Director of the Gelacio I. Yason Foundation – Family Farm School in Mindoro has spent years building an education model that honors the lives rural youth already live, while opening doors to the futures they deserve. 

In 2026, InLife Philippines recognized Ballesteros’ work by naming her one of the year's InLife Sheroes, a distinction given to Filipino women who drive meaningful, lasting change in their communities.

An Education Rooted in the Land

Built on the alternancia model, the Family Farm School in Mindoro operates on the principle that students learn best when classroom education alternates with time spent working on family farms. Rather than pulling young people away from their communities and livelihoods, the school integrates learning into the rhythms of rural life.

Ballesteros describes the school's work through four interconnected pillars: integral youth formation, alternancia, responsible association, and rural development. Together, they form a system designed not just to educate individual students, but to strengthen entire communities from the inside out.

"Imagine if that were adopted in many schools. It will spread to the rural community, then rural development happens,” she emphasized.

For Ballesteros, the model is a vision for what sustainable development in the Philippines could look like when education meets the ground where people actually live.

The Work Behind the Recognition

The results at the Family Farm School speak through the families it has served. Parents who once watched their children struggle between the demands of farm life and schooling have seen something shift. 

For many of them, the school did not just teach their children how to read or calculate. It helped shape who they are.

"Our students' parents told us how the school transformed their children. Truly, the greater work lies in character building,” Ballesteros said.

Character building, in Ballesteros' view, is inseparable from community building. 

A student who grows up with a strong sense of identity and purpose does not abandon their hometown at the first opportunity. They stay, contribute, and help the community grow alongside them. This is the cycle the Family Farm School is built to create.

Ballesteros has also taken that advocacy beyond the school itself. Recognizing that the model's potential depends on policy support, she has worked with the Gelacio I. Yason Foundation to push for a rural farm school law in the Philippines. 

“We saw that the growth of family farm schools like us can contribute to sustainable rural development. Hence, we advocated for the passage of the rural farm school law. However, the farm school subsidy was not covered in the said law, so we are now lobbying for its inclusion,” she added.

A Maternal Guardian for Rural Youth

Those who know Ballesteros describe her role with particular clarity. She is, in many ways, a maternal figure for the young people in her care, watching over their growth with both steadiness and intention. 

She ensures they never have to choose between their heritage and their education, that becoming more does not require becoming someone different.

The analogy she reaches for is a natural one. Like a farmer who tends the soil long before the harvest, she looks after conditions that produce lasting growth rather than quick results. "When the system blooms like mushrooms in the field, and integrated development happens, that is how sustainability happens,” she highlighted.

What the InLife Sheroes Award Represents

The InLife Sheroes program was created to honor Filipino women who lead with purpose and whose work extends beyond personal achievement. The 2026 awards shine a light on women whose efforts improve lives at the community level across sectors, including education, enterprise, and social development.

For Ballesteros, the recognition carries a specific meaning: it amplifies an advocacy that too often goes unheard. Rural education in the Philippines faces persistent funding gaps, geographic barriers, and a policy landscape that often fails to account for the needs of farming communities. 

Every platform that draws attention to those gaps is a step toward closing them.

"I know that I will use this opportunity to advance our advocacy for holistic education, especially for rural communities, for the indigent sectors of the community," Ballesteros said.