“We should not need to pay a premium to get a good education, and my goal is to make quality education accessible for my community.” She joins the 2023 Fellowship with the hope of facilitating sustainable change.

Dea identifies herself as a Filipino-Hong Konger who wishes to make Hong Kong a more equitable place for its ethnically diverse youth population, particularly when it comes to higher education and career opportunities. Her vision of Hong Kong is a city that possesses adequate resources as well as the heart necessary to eliminate social inequalities and improve the standard of living for all.

Dea aspires to create values-based programs that inform Hong Kong’s Filipino youths and their parents of opportunities available and accessible to them. She is a member of Section Juan, an organization dedicated to engaging, educating and nurturing Filipino identity through arts and culture. She also works at Enrich HK, a charity committed to the economic empowerment of migrant domestic workers. She is a Universities Guidance Counsellor at an international school in Hong Kong.

“Each person has the responsibility to ensure quality education is accessible to all, and that everyone has freedom of choice and the opportunity to choose what is best for themselves.” Dea thinks it is important for people who care about policy reform to come together, address different social issues and safeguard the quality and equity of education access across schools in the city. To her, it is a human right to be well-informed about the issues that directly impact a person’s life, and it all begins with being educated.

Dea enjoys connecting with like-minded individuals who are also passionate about the goal of ensuring equal, equitable, quality education. She joins the Fellowship to hone skills such as leadership skills, problem-solving skills and how to mobilize resources that are important in driving high-impact change within her community.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, listening to podcasts and collecting vinyls. When she is not vlogging about her life in Hong Kong, she enjoys watching movies and tanning at the beach.