Shared meals weren’t optional when Feng Walkup was a child. Regardless of what the day held or what beckoned outside their home, the first-generation Chinese-American family would gather around the dinner table at least once a day. That’s when Feng’s father would impart his wisdom on his children, giving Feng the roadmap for her success, not to mention a precious memory.
“My father always told me to go above the line,” she says. It was his way of encouraging her to do more than is expected. He talked the talk, and he walked the walk, Feng notes. “He always did more than he was asked to do.”
Feng’s father passed away in 2010, but his legacy lives on in the work ethic of his youngest daughter. So much so, she was the first recipient of the Pride of the Jersey award in the Japan/Korea/International Pork Group of Hormel Foods International Corporation (HFIC).
“Feng takes personal accountability for delivering key results,” says Jack Shao, who manages the business and oversees her work. “[She] always asks, ‘What else can I do?’”
That’s something Feng knows more than a little about. She emigrated to the United States in 1991 from Guangxi, China. Unable to speak or understand English, she concentrated for “a year or two” on learning the language before applying to college.
“It was as if I had to start over,” she says. “It was really difficult. I almost wanted to go back.”
But she stayed, learning enough English to enroll in Scott Community College, where she found she had ample command of the language to be able to understand her professors’ lectures. Reading and writing assignments were a bigger challenge, however. Feng found herself working “two times harder than her classmates.” Still, she believed it was worth it.
Again, Feng credits her father with giving her the drive to succeed.
“He influenced me the most. He was very poor in China and had so many different jobs,” she says.
