Every Day Is Different: Honoring Amy Lai’s 45 Years at HKIS

Repulse Bay Facilities Management Manager Amy Lai stands in the lush garden her team has helped grow outside their office. In the background is the original brick wall from the Repulse Bay campus from when Amy joined the school more than 40 years ago.

On any given morning at Hong Kong International School, before the day fully begins, you might find Amy Lai quietly taking in the campus she has helped shape over nearly half a century as a Facilities Management manager. The school’s lush natural surroundings, the camaraderie of her team, and the joyful sounds of students echoing across campus are among the everyday moments she cherishes—simple pleasures that, over time, made 45 years feel like they passed in an instant.

“I feel like my time here has gone by very fast,” Amy reflects.

This year marks Amy Lai’s 45th year at HKIS—a remarkable journey that began in 1981 with a simple newspaper advertisement. At the time, she was working as an accountant, spending her days in a windowless office with numbers and calculators. One day at the family home in South Bay village, just a short walk from the original HKIS campus, Amy Lai noticed an ad in the paper that caught her eye. Something about the posting for a PE secretary position at HKIS—a job that would be active, relational, and dynamic—called to her.

“My first job was really boring,” she recalls of her earlier career. “When I came in to interview for the HKIS PE secretary, it felt quite appealing. It was something different.”

That small decision—to try something new close to home—became the beginning of a lifelong commitment.

Moments of Challenge—and Community
Of course, 45 years have also brought moments of great difficulty. Amy vividly remembers the typhoons that tested the school’s resilience, including one in the 1980s that caused severe damage to newly constructed buildings.

Yet what stands out most is not the destruction—but the response.
During that typhoon, roads were washed out and public transportation halted. Amy remembers that the Facilities Management staff arranged to share taxis to work, determined to restore the campus for students. For some of the team, this meant making the choice to walk for miles from Aberdeen to the school to help. In those moments, Amy saw something deeper than duty:

“Even when it seemed like there was no way to get in, 100% of the team made it to school that day. The team showed me that they had a deep sense of belonging at the school,” she shares.

That sense of belonging—of shared purpose—is a defining feature of the Facilities Management team which produces some of the longest-serving HKIS employees.

A sweet reminder of why Amy Lai has worked at HKIS for over 40 years–the students!

A Life Intertwined with School
For Amy, HKIS has never been just a workplace. It is also where some of her nieces and nephews grew up, and where she found daily joy in the presence of young learners. Even more so when it was her own family members.

“I really love to see the students’ faces,” she says. “Every day I see them playing so happily, it makes it easy to do my job.”

As an avid hiker, the natural environment around the school has always mattered to her as well—the Repulse Bay Facilities Management team have a lush garden of plants outside their office that they grow themselves.

A Legacy of Care
Ask Amy why she stayed for 45 years, and her answer is simple: it never felt repetitive, never felt stagnant, and never felt like just a job.
Instead, it felt meaningful.

“I do not feel like I worked for 45 years,” she says with a smile. “It feels like… maybe 10 years.”

Through decades of change, Amy Lai has been a constant presence at HKIS: steady in storms, adaptable in growth, and deeply committed to the people and place she serves. Her work may often happen behind the scenes, but its impact is visible everywhere—from the safety of the buildings to the spirit of the community.

As she looks ahead to her next chapter, one thing remains certain: Amy’s legacy is not just in the spaces she maintained, but in the sense of belonging she helped grow.

✦