The paperwork was already filed. The resignation letter had been quietly processed at the Division of Isabela, the school head informed, a handful of co-teachers told only because they had to be. Most of the extended family knew nothing. That silence was deliberate, and it held until a job offer arrived from a school district nearly 8,000 miles away.
Hazel Cauilan Respicio, 43, is now a fourth grade licensed teacher at Don and Dee Snyder Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, part of the Clark County School District. She arrived on a J1 visa on July 26, 2023, carrying 14 years and five months of Philippine public school experience and a decision she had never once dreamed of making.
“Working overseas was never a personal dream of mine, nor had I ever imagined leaving the Philippines,” she shares with TGFM.
Fourteen years before the leap
The route to Nevada began in Metro Manila. Her first classroom was at Marulas Elementary School under the Division of Caloocan City, where she spent close to four years cycling through Grade 6, Grade 4, and Grade 1 — three very different developmental stages, three very different sets of demands.
In 2013 she moved north to Lenzon Elementary School in Gamu District, Division of Isabela, and stayed for a decade teaching third grade. The classroom was only part of it. She took on the school’s Information and Communications Technology coordination, managed the Learner Information System, and advised the school paper as journalism adviser. She also sat for the preparatory review for the National Qualifying Examination for School Heads, the pathway for teachers aiming at a principalship.
By any reasonable measure, she was building a career at home. Then the arithmetic changed.
“Practically speaking, my primary reason for working abroad is to seek greener pastures and better opportunities for my family’s future,” the Filipina educator says. But money was only half the equation. “I wanted to prove that I can be more and achieve more as an educator, taking on complex, challenging, yet deeply rewarding responsibilities in a completely new educational system.”
The doubters, the interviews, the visa
She kept the plan close. Part of that was superstition, or something adjacent to it — a belief that plans should become reality before they become conversation. Part of it was self-protection.
Word still got out. “Some people talked behind my back and openly questioned my decision,” she recalls. The questions were pointed: Why do you want to work abroad? Can you really do it? “While their doubts occasionally made me question myself, I stood firm and smiled at them.”
Her best friend pushed her to start applying. The two traveled to Cebu for an interview with recruitment agency All Seasons, where she was selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants. Another opportunity followed when the Hawaii District conducted interviews in Ilocos. Weeks after that, the offer came from Clark County School District — Las Vegas, where her sister-in-law happened to live. It felt less like coincidence than confirmation.
The visa process nearly undid it. She had been hired by a school in North Las Vegas when the sponsor delivered new terms: placements would be restricted to schools rated three to five stars. The offer evaporated. What followed were what she describes as “several sleepless nights filled with stress and relentless searching” before Snyder Elementary hired her.
Then her father died.
He had been the person she looked up to most, the steady source of guidance and financial support from her childhood through her own marriage and motherhood — and he had been thrilled about the teaching job abroad. “Losing him completely shattered me, making me question whether I should even continue my journey,” she says.
What carried her through was a reframing she still holds onto. “I shifted my mindset, believing that when something precious is taken away, God provides a new path.” She comforted herself with the thought that her father had prayed hard for her success and was still watching.
Her husband, John Bryan Lintao Respicio, became what she calls her absolute rock. Her sister-in-law in Las Vegas provided both financial and emotional footing. She boarded the plane. Her three children — Princes Serene, Emmanuel Bryant, and Zhedy May — stayed behind.
“The emotional weight of leaving my husband and children behind” is how she describes the hardest part, and she does not soften it.
A classroom that runs on exchange
Fourth grade in Clark County means teaching everything. She is responsible for the full academic growth of her students across Phonics, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Health — a comprehensive, all-subject load with no specialist to hand the hard parts to.
What she did not expect was how much the exchange would flow both directions.
“What I appreciate most about my current job is the rich exchange of culture with my students and colleagues,” she says. Lessons, presentations, and cultural events all became channels for it. And then there is the detail she lights up about: “One of the absolute biggest smiles on my face comes from seeing my American students eagerly learning Tagalog words and using them in the classroom in respectful ways.”
That is the small version of a larger ambition. She is not simply absorbing the American system — she is inventorying it. “Immersing myself in the American education system, learning its unique culture, and adopting modern teaching practices is incredibly fulfilling,” she says. “What drives me forward is the inspiring vision of eventually bringing these valuable experiences and global insights back to my home country to enrich the lives of Filipino learners.”
She has kept building while teaching full-time. She is pursuing a master’s degree in special education and is a co-author of a newly published international review on special education policies and practices, featured in the International Multidisciplinary Journal of Research for Innovation, Sustainability and Excellence.
Two countries, one plan
Ask about the future and the answer arrives in two parts that seem, at first, to contradict each other.
When the J1 program ends, she intends to go home. “I look forward to returning to my home country to share the invaluable culture, modern classroom practices, innovative teaching strategies, and advanced skills I have mastered in the United States,” she says. The stated goal is to enrich the local curriculum and equip Filipino learners with a wider frame of reference.
Longer term, she wants to return to the United States permanently — to demonstrate enough value to the Department of State, her district, her students, and her community to transition to permanent residency and keep serving Las Vegas.
The two ambitions are not in tension. She describes the whole enterprise as building a bridge between two educational systems, and a bridge is only useful if you can walk it in both directions.
Her advocacy is aimed squarely at Filipino teachers weighing the same decision she once refused to imagine making. “If you are dedicated, set aside your doubts and chase your dreams,” she says. “There is always a way, and the absolute best time to start your application is now!”
What she tells her kababayan
Four years abroad have produced a set of convictions she offers without much hedging.
On adapting: “Never forget that you were chosen because you are capable.” Doubt will arrive, she says, and when it does the answer is to go back to the reason you left.
On money: the salary is bigger, but so are the obligations and the temptations. Budget deliberately. Do not let anyone else’s pressure dictate the spending.
On trust: keep the biggest plans private until they are real. Choose the inner circle carefully, and populate it only with people who actually believe in you.
On family: communicate constantly and honestly, and lean on your spouse. “A supportive spouse is your absolute rock when the world overseas feels heavy.”
She is also frank about the days that flatten you. Her recommended repairs are unglamorous and specific — go to church, call a real friend, allow yourself some retail therapy, travel a little, treat your family. “Never underestimate the power of simply pausing to learn the value of breathing in and breathing out.”
Underneath all of it runs the phrase she repeats like a metronome, the one that got her from Isabela to Nevada and through the worst month of her life: Grow through what you go through.
She is not finished growing, and she seems entirely at peace with that.
