San Jose State Professor Xiaolu Hu was selected as the 2015 International Alumni Award recipient for Kent State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Services Sixth Annual Hall of Fame Awards. Hu teaches in the department of counselor education in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education. She received the award in October.

Hu has supported international development and exchange programs throughout her time as a professor at San Jose State. She was awarded a Fulbright Hays Fellowship to bring teachers, counselors and administrators to China for training in cultural awareness and has led study abroad programs for her students. After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, she led SJSU faculty to provide crisis counseling and training at Southwest China Normal University in Chongquing, China

In addition to her international efforts, Hu has been received a multitude of grants to support student achievement in low-income communities in the Bay Area. These achievements include coordinating GEAR UP, a program aimed at increasing readiness for college of low-income students, which was successful in achieving a 90-percent college application rate among high school seniors involved in the program. She and a colleague successfully applied for a $14 million grant.

Hu, born in Beijing, is an alumna of the Health and Human Services, College of Education at Kent State. She originally came to Kent in the 1980s when she was selected as a visiting professor from Beijing Normal University under Dr. Gerald H. Read’s Center for International and Intercultural Education at Kent. She completed a master’s in school counseling in 1986 and her doctorate in 1990.

She has 25 years experience in teaching and mentoring graduate students.