From classroom to courtroom: Teacher-turned-lawyer inspires Bangsamoro women

HER Story feature poster for Mailah Mindalano showing her portrait over a classroom background with the title From classroom to courtroom: Teacher-turned-lawyer inspires Bangsamoro women

From day care to law school

Some dreams ask us to take a different path. But taking a new one does not mean the road we leave behind meant any less.

For 12 years, Mailah Mindalano built her life around children. She taught them how to speak, write, listen, and make sense of the world beyond their homes. All the while, she was carrying a dream of her own — to become a lawyer.

A day care classroom could be noisy and exhausting, but for Mailah, it was also where she felt most at home.

Long before she would spend her nights reading law books and preparing for examinations, she would dedicate her time to guiding young learners to take their first steps toward who they might someday become.

“Teaching is not just a profession,” she said. “It is a calling, and it is my passion.”

At 18, fresh out of high school, Mailah began working as a Child Development Worker (CDW) at the Bolayoka Lakitan Day Care Center in Madamba, Lanao del Sur.

Filling other cups

Teaching and caring for young children requires a particular kind of patience.

There are days when she arrives tired, carrying concerns from home or worries about the future, yet still has to enter a classroom ready to listen, encourage, and guide.

As one reflection on this profession poignantly puts it: “your own cup can feel empty, yet you still have to show up and help fill so many others.”

For Mailah, that was part of the work.

The income of a CDW was modest, and there were times when the resources available were not enough. Instead of waiting for everything to be provided, she sometimes spent her own money on learning materials for her students.

“As a CDW, the salary is not much,” she said. “But I love teaching, and I want the children to have what they need.”

For 12 years, Mindalano remained in the classroom.

But while she was teaching children to dream, she was quietly holding on to a dream of her own — to pursue law.

For years, Mailah carried the desire to enter the legal profession. Eventually, she enrolled in law school, stepping into a life that demanded a different kind of discipline.

Her days became divided between the classroom and her studies.

By day, she was surrounded by children. By night, there were case digests and the long preparation required of a law student.

There were times when she thought about giving up her work as a Child Development Worker to focus entirely on law school.

But each time, something pulled her back to the classroom.

“I realized I couldn’t let it go,” she said. “I would miss the noise of the learners.”

It was not an easy arrangement, but she persevered.

There were years of managing work, studies, and the ordinary demands of life. But the qualities she developed as a Child Development Worker — patience, consistency, and the ability to keep showing up — became the same qualities she carried into law school.

“The love and patience I learned as a CDW, I brought that with me to law school,” she said. “If you don’t love what you’re doing, you won’t survive. And without patience, I don’t think you can make it.”

A new chapter

On Jan. 8, 2026, Mailah passed the Philippine Bar Exam.

After years of studying and balancing two demanding roles, the result still felt difficult for her to fully process.

“I felt the grace of the Almighty,” she said. “I know I had many shortcomings. But when Allah SWT sees your effort, He will give it to you.”

Passing the bar exam opened a new chapter, but it also brought a difficult question: “How do you leave behind something that has been part of your life for more than a decade?”

Mindalano admits that her heart remains with teaching.

“I really want to continue teaching,” she said. “But I think I also need to follow this new path that Allah has given me.”

It is a transition familiar to many women who find themselves standing at a crossroads, one leading to the lives they have built and the other leading to the possibilities they have worked toward.

For Mailah, becoming a lawyer does not erase the years she spent as a child development worker. Neither does one dream cancel the other.

The classroom shaped the version of her who eventually survived law school. The patience she learned from children became patience with herself. The discipline of showing up for her students became the discipline that carried her through years of study. And while she helped children believe that they could one day become something more, she continued to believe the same thing for herself.

Mailah’s journey carries a powerful message for many Bangsamoro women like her who wear different hats and carry within them personal dreams that may sometimes feel distant — especially mothers and fellow Child Development Workers who dedicate their lives to caring for others.

“Being a mother is not the end of your dreams,” Mailah said. “Don’t stop dreaming. You can still achieve what you aspire to be, as long as you have faith in yourself and in the Almighty. InshaAllah, your dreams will become a reality.”

Her story is also part of the work carried out by many CDWs across the Bangsamoro who serve at the community level, often becoming among the first teachers and caregivers children encounter outside their homes.

With support from the Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) under the Child and Youth Welfare Program (CYWP), the Ministry provided monthly honoraria, training, and early childhood development to CDWs like Mailah, and equipped Child Development Centers with learning materials and other resources to help them carry out their work.

For many CDWs, whose income from local governments can be limited, such support becomes an important form of assistance that helps them continue serving children in their communities.

Through the hard work of child development workers like Mailah, the MSSD finds partners on the ground who become part of the support system surrounding young children and their families.

And perhaps that is what her story leaves behind.

For more than a decade, Mailah has been part of the support system for children taking their first steps toward the future.

All the while, she was taking her own. And that is what makes it all the more courageous and inspiring.

(Settie Jehana Baunto / BIO)

From day care to law school

Filling other cups

A new chapter

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