Ever stay up late to watch television and come across one of those badly dubbed Kung Fu films? If so, you've probably heard the voice of Andrew P. Chworowsky.

Before entering the hospitality industry, Chworowsky, 32, the winner of the 1996 Drown Prize awarded annually to a top senior in the School of Hotel Administration, made a living in Asia providing English dubbing for Kung Fu movies and television programs.

"My talent was my ability to read the script and watch the movie at the same time," said Chworowsky, who estimates he dubbed more than 10,000 hours of Kung Fu films while living in Hong Kong in the early 1980s.

Despite a pay scale that was "pretty good," he said, Chworowsky ditched the dubbing job in 1986. "It got mind-numbingly boring. It turned into a factory job, where all I was doing was reading scripts. I didn't see any future in it."

The next role he was offered was taking drink orders in a soon-to-be-opened restaurant in Hong Kong. "The owners wanted an American bartender to help set the right tone for their Chicago-style grill," he said.

Chworowsky signed on with an American-owned company, Windy City International of Hong Kong, in 1988, and he has since played a key role in making the firm one of the most successful restaurant companies in Asia.

After talking with Chworowsky and hearing how varied and unique his talents and young professional life have been, it's easy to see why a panel of Hotel School faculty selected him as the recipient of the $15,000 Drown Prize -- one of Cornell's richest undergraduate awards.

Chworowsky has demonstrated independence, perseverance, energy and industriousness in all he has done, and he also holds the promise of making a significant contribution to the hospitality industry.

The senior's road to winning the Drown Prize has been circuitous. Raised in Milwaukee, the son of a Lutheran minister, Chworowsky moved to Hong Kong as a teen-ager with his family. When the family decided to head back to the states, he decided to stay behind.

Then his chance meeting with the entrepreneurs who had plans to open a restaurant catering to the tastes of American business executives launched his successful hospitality career.

Chworowsky has held numerous positions with Windy City, including regional general manager, and he has helped open the firm's restaurants -- Dick Ryan's Chicago Grill -- in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

"The restaurants provide an oasis to the growing population of American business executives traveling through Asia," he said.

Dick Ryan's has been successful in large part, he said, because it does what it does better than anyone else: offer quality food prepared American-style. "Our philosophy has been to not localize the food. We have no Chinese food on the menu, nor would we adjust any recipe to appeal to the Chinese palate."

That's straightforward marketing that works. Why offer lo mein on the menu when other establishments can make it better? Instead, you offer steaks, seafood and ribs.

Chworowsky decided to apply to Cornell's Hotel School after realizing a college degree would enhance his career.

"Management was considering me for an executive position, but the one thing that was holding me back was the lack of any theoretical or post-secondary education," he said.

"There was no question as to where I would go," he said. "Cornell was often mentioned as the best school in the business."

When Chworowsky returns to Hong Kong this July, he won't be the only employee at Windy City with a degree from the Hotel School. Two of his former Cornell classmates, Michael Domer '95 and Larissa Cook '95, are employed with the company.

So how will Chworowsky spend his $15,000 Drown Prize award? "I'll probably invest it for now in mutual funds or something and then maybe consider investing it in a restaurant of my own, perhaps," he said.

Aside from Chworowsky, four other seniors were selected by the faculty panel as Drown Prize finalists and have received $1,000 cash prizes. They are: Megan Marie Machado of Williamsville, N.Y.; Johnny Ceballos of Woodside, N.Y.; Karen Lyn Thiessen of Boise, Idaho and Eric Charles Sinoway of Landing, N.J.

The Drown Prize, established and endowed by hotel owner Joseph W. Drown, is intended "to enhance not only the knowledge of young people but their independence and self-reliance so that they may contribute to the free society to which Drown credited his own success."