Editor’s Note: The following post comes from the University of Missouri.
“The University of Missouri Honors College has announced that, effective for Fall semester 2017, all Honors students will have priority registration and be able to register for classes on Day 1 of registration for every subsequent semester (inclusive of Fall 2017), by assigned hours (as determined by credit hours earned).
“Also, beginning January 1, 2017 the College will become the hosts to the Cherng Program in Honors. With the support of Andrew & Peggy Cherng and the Panda Charitable Foundation, the College will offer an innovative, fully interdisciplinary general education curriculum which will be team taught, include faculty guided research and problem-based learning, and tie into an experiential opportunity to travel to Kuala Lumpur or Hawai’i for an immersive experience.
“The gift will also allow Mizzou to support up to 20 Cherng Scholars, providing undergraduates a stipend of at least $5,000 for participating in the curricular program or undertaking research and artistry in the summer months. The generous support of the Cherng’s and the Panda Charitable Foundation will allow the College to offer nearly 400 undergraduate research and artistry positions each year.”
The following is from Forbes magazine:
“Andrew and Peggy Cherng have made a fortune selling orange chicken, chow mein, potstickers and spring rolls, to mall shoppers, airport travelers and others who visit one of their nearly 1,900 Panda Express quick-service outlets in the U.S., Canada and a few international outposts. Now they are looking to increase their global footprint and are also experimenting with new flavors and formats at their Pasadena, Calif. Innovation Kitchen, selling salads, wraps and build-your-own choices.
“The couple who emigrated from China (Andrew) and Burma (Peggy) paid $103 million in 2015 for a 4.9% stake in Golden Eagle Retail Group, a Hong Kong-listed operator of shopping malls in China. It’s a far way from Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas where they first met. She went on to get a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, he a master’s degree in applied mathematics. He got into the restaurant business first, opening a sit-down restaurant with his dad in 1973.
“Ten years later, she gave up her career as a software developer (3M, McDonnell Douglas) to help him, launching their first Panda Express in the second largest mall in Los Angeles County. Today they have restaurants in 48 states with international locations in Mexico, Korea and Dubai.”
