Fu wins Virginia Tech's 2005 Alumni Award for Excellence in International Education
Victoria Fu, of Blacksburg, a professor of human development and director of the Child Development Center for Learning and Research in the College of Human Sciences and Education at Virginia Tech, won the Virginia Tech 2005 Alumni Award for International Education.
The Alumni Association established the Alumni Award for Excellence in International Education to recognize contributions by faculty and staff that have demonstrated an impact on international education at Virginia Tech. The honor is explicitly aimed at recognizing individuals whose efforts have resulted in thoughtful programming, curricula, or approaches to international education. This includes service to the community; study abroad; services to international students and scholars; curriculum development; program development; and external partnerships, awards, and recognitions. Selection is based on contributions to the internationalization of Virginia Tech, the impact on students, the impact on the campus and community, the significance of the initiative, and the sustainability of the initiative.
Recognizing the value of learning other cultures' early-childhood education practices, Fu takes promising practices from other countries and applies them in new cultural contexts. She is a member of the International Research in Teacher Education program, which supports innovation in teacher education that includes incorporation of internationally developed practices. She is also a consultant to various programs that seek to explore innovative teaching. As a part of this, she is asked to consult on recasting the Italian, Reggio Emilia-inspired approach to teaching, from an inquiry-based teacher education perspective after the excellent reception by scholars of their publication concerning the subject.
Through two international conferences, she brought to Virginia Tech researchers, practitioners, and child advocates from around the world to explore and discuss principles of the Regiio Emilia approach, and she has transformed the Reggio Emilia approach to teaching in the United States. She has involved international scholars in teacher-training programs and led study-abroad courses to take a look at the multi-cultural practices of early-childhood educators.
Fu earned a B.S. in Clothing and Textiles, an M.S. in Child and Family Development, and the Ph.D. in Child Development, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She came to Virginia Tech in 1972.
The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences embraces the arts, humanities, social and human sciences, and education. The college nurtures intellect and spirit, enlightens decision-making, inspires positive change, and improves the quality of life for people of all ages. It is home to the departments of apparel, housing and resource management, communication, educational leadership and policy studies, English, foreign languages and literatures, history; human development, interdisciplinary studies, music, philosophy, political science, ROTC, science and technology in society, sociology, teaching and learning, and theatre arts.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
