Alumnae Lounge

Mayling Woo Clements('81), President

I attended ISSH from 1967 through 1972, nursery through 3rd grade. My family moved to Hawaii in 1973-1978 to get our US citizenship and then returned to Japan and to ISSH to finish my high school years from 1978 through 1981. My father was Chinese originally from Shanghai and my mother was Japanese. Neither one of my parents enforced their own culture, tradition, religion, or nationalism upon us in the household but rather allowed us to fully absorb the third culture of an international school. Those very first years of my education at ISSH became my core to help through many difficult situations both in my personal and professional life.

The excellent education I received at ISSH led me to attend the University of Notre Dame where I earned my BA in Economics and Computer Applications. I continued at Notre Dame to earn my MBA degree. After a few years of working in New York City, I decided to return to Japan to join the family business. At present, I am the CEO of a company selling automotive and industrial chemical products in Japan. I became CEO when my father passed away in 1995 when I was 32 years old. The challenges, trials, and tribulations on the job I faced over the last 23 years tested me repeatedly. I believe my core strength comes from having an open heart and mind which gives me my intellectual freedom to appreciate and learn whatever is new and foreign to me.

I am so grateful for all of my life blessings of family, friends, and career. To serve as the President of the Alumnae Association for ISSH not only gives me an opportunity to reconnect with the school and my friends but to also work with the wonderful alumnae leaders of our sister schools in Japan and around the world. During my tenure I intend to work with the alumnae, the school, the faculty and students, and parents to continue the ISSH legacy for generations to come.

Alumnae Board Members

From left: Mimy Hayashi Chang (’84), Megumi Higuchi Sano (’81), Mayling Woo Clements (’81) and Ailing Chang Kanazawa (’86)

We are proud of our Alumnae and look forward to hearing from them!