Some people leave home to find money. Others leave to find themselves. Ruel Atun did both — and somewhere between the rice fields of Sorsogon and the architectural wonders of India, he became something neither he nor anyone from Pilar could have predicted: a doctor, a nation-builder, and a teacher of teachers.
Twelve years ago, Atun boarded a flight to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, armed with a teaching background and a hunger that classroom walls could no longer contain. “My decision to work abroad was fueled by a desire for career expansion and the capacity to better support my family,” he shares with TGFM. It was a reason as old as the OFW story itself — but what Atun would make of that opportunity was anything but ordinary.
A PhD born from scarcity
Before the credentials and the accolades, there was a student assistant at the Dominican School of Pilar who wasn’t sure how he would afford the next semester, let alone a graduate degree. Financial uncertainty after high school, he recalls, was the defining challenge of his early life. But rather than shrink from it, he leaned in — picking up work where he could, building an academic foundation one degree at a time.
Today, Atun holds a Doctor of Philosophy in School Transformation from St. Paul University Manila, a Master of Business Administration, and a Master of Arts in Curriculum Design Development and Supervision. He is also a Licensed Professional Teacher. The wall of credentials isn’t decorative — each one is a quiet rebuke to the circumstances he started with.
“I am living proof that with a relentless spirit, a strong support system, and faith in God, one can transcend humble beginnings to reach the pinnacle of success,” he says.
In 2018, he passed the Special Professional Licensure Examination for Teachers in the Middle East — becoming a pioneer in that achievement. A year later, he founded Teacher A Review Center, an online platform built to help what he calls “Dreamers to Become Achievers.” The center now offers review programs for both the SPLE in the Middle East and the BLEPT in the Philippines, and has produced thousands of licensed teachers, including several topnotchers.
In 2022, he was formally recognized as The Outstanding OFW.
The corporate and the classroom
By day, Atun works as a Training and Development specialist at Gas Arabian Services in Saudi Arabia — a role he has held since 2013. But the line between his corporate work and his academic advocacy blurs almost entirely.
He currently chairs the National Organization for Professional Teachers’ SPLE-LET chapter in the KSA-Eastern Region, sits on the board of NOPTI-KSA Eastern Region, serves as an educational advisor to colleges and universities in the Philippines, and teaches graduate-level courses online as a part-time professor. The schedule would exhaust most people. For Atun, it is the architecture of a life’s mission.
“I find deep fulfillment serving as an Educational Advisor and Consultant,” he says, “facilitating programs specifically designed for OFWs — ensuring my fellow kababayans can advance their education and professional standing while working abroad.”
35 countries, one classroom
Ask Atun about the benefits of working overseas, and he doesn’t begin with the salary. He begins in Iceland, where he stood before peaks that made his breath catch. Then Amsterdam, with its winding canals. Then India, where he found architecture he could only describe as “10/10.” In total, he has visited 35 countries — each one, as he puts it, a chapter in a global education.
“These 35 countries represent more than just stamps in a passport,” he says. “I have learned that ‘transformative leadership’ isn’t found in a textbook; it is found in the people we meet and the cultures we embrace.”
His faith, too, has traveled with him. Through CFC-Singles for Christ, he has served communities across the region, finding in that service an anchor that grounds his otherwise restless ambition.
He wants younger Filipinos — especially those still in the provinces, still in the fields — to see his life as evidence. “From the farms of Pilar to the far corners of the earth,” he says, the message he wants to leave is simple: they can strive for more.
His future plans reflect that conviction. He intends to establish a school — a physical institution that embodies the international standards he has spent over a decade studying and benchmarking abroad. Teacher A Review Center, he says plainly, is just the beginning.
For now, he offers this to every OFW finding their footing somewhere far from home: “Dreaming and achieving are twins — they must always go together.”
