Dr. Shaoqing (Sunny) Li, a loving mother, dedicated wife, accomplished professional, and devoted Christian, passed away on November 25, 2020 after a long illness. Sunny was born to her father, Fangzhi Li and her mother, Jinping Ye on November 15, 1970 in Hubei, China. She was the youngest of the six siblings in her family.
After high marks on the National College Entrance Examination in 1988, Sunny was admitted to the Department of Educational Technology at Beijing Normal University, a prestigious university in Beijing, the capital city of China. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1992 and continued as a graduate student in the same department. She earned her master’s degree in 1995.
In 1995, Sunny received a full scholarship from the School of Education at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington to continue her graduate studies. She earned a master’s degree in Computer Science in 2000 and a PhD in Instructional Systems Technology in 2001 from Indiana. Among her many accomplishments at IU, Sunny pioneered the on-line survey for the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). She also worked for Motorola and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) during her time as a graduate student at IU.
During her time at Indiana University, Sunny met a fellow graduate student from China and her eventual husband, Shouping Hu, who started his graduate studies at the same time as Sunny. They fell in love in 1997 and were married in October 1998 in Bloomington, Indiana. The family moved to New Jersey in July 2000 after Shouping accepted a faculty position at Seton Hall University. Sunny began her professional career as a Senior Information Developer at Lucent Technologies in New Jersey in 2000. The couple’s first child, a son, Alex, was born in 2003 in Livingston, New Jersey.
In 2004, Shouping accepted a faculty position in the College of Education at Florida State University (FSU). The family moved to Tallahassee in the summer of 2004. Sunny switched her career path to become an institutional researcher at Florida A&M University (FAMU). Sunny also served as an adjunct faculty in the Higher Education program at FSU. The couple’s second son, Aaron was born in 2006 in Tallahassee, Florida.
Among many accomplishments at FAMU, Sunny identified errors in the state methodology used to determine excess hour calculations in 2014. This finding helped FAMU gain extra points and met the requirements for Performance Based Funding in the amount of millions of dollars. Sunny retired in 2018 as the Assistant Director of the Office of Institutional Research at FAMU.
Sunny is survived by her two sons, Alex and Aaron, and her husband, Dr. Shouping Hu, the Louis W. & Elizabeth N. Bender Endowed Professor and Director of the Center for Postsecondary Success in the College of Education at Florida State University.
One of the many favorite Bible verses of Sunny’s was Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 at 2:30pm ET at Tallahassee Chinese Christian Church (TCCC), 8801 Centerville Road, Tallahassee, FL 32309. Viewing time will be 2:00pm-2:30pm ET the same day at TCCC. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to TCCC.
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