Uplifting Lives One at a Time

Born in the Philippines, Sabrina grew up in a traditional Chinese family. Her mother had a particular skill of being able to read people, to understanding their intentions, motivations, and emotions.  It opened up Sabrina’s eyes very early in her life to the notion that people have an inner world of experience. Her interest and curiosity about human beings and more importantly, about the human mind, grew.  When she came home from school as a young girl, she would read on and on about psychology. She was fascinated by the impact of this discipline on our behavior, abilities, and life choices.

Later on, she naturally pursued this path in her studies, graduating from Ateneo de Manila University. She then moved to New York where she earned a Master's degree in Education and a Ph.D. in School Psychology from Fordham University.

Returning to the Philippines in 2011, she started her private practice, providing psychological services and consultations to children and families.

Through this experience, Sabrina had gotten attuned to understanding people, their behavior, what motivates them, and how to help them maximize their potential.

But within a few years, she realized that while she could help people go beyond their internal limitations, she had no power over society and its inequalities.

From there, she realized she could tap into her expertise in avenues beyond psychological services to tackle external reasons leading to unfulfilled lives, which led her to co-found Lhoopa with Marco.

Having learned about the real estate industry, Marco and Sabrina identified huge gaps in the process that limited regular Filipinos’ access to their own homes. Equipped with a dual perspective,  a tech one and a people one, they realized that there was a novel way of tackling the global problem of affordable housing: through the partnership of innovative technology and the empowerment of people on the ground.