Tyler M. Fisher Profession: Rhodes Scholar

Tyler Fisher, recently studying European literature at Oxford University, was honored as UCF's first Rhodes Scholar in 2002.

Fisher graduated summa cum laude that year with a 4.0 GPA and degrees in English and Spanish after successfully defending his thesis -- an English translation of Cuban Jose Marti's "Ismaelillo."

An avid writer, Tyler has had more than twenty poems and essays published in various anthologies and journals, including The Formalist and Philological Papers. Tyler has extended his interest in creative writing to teaching weekly writing classes at an assisted living center (where he also provides entertainment on the piano), 56-stringed hammered dulcimer, and bowed psaltery (instruments with which he has produced three musical albums).

Since his freshman year, Tyler volunteered through UCF's Honors Elementary Reach Out (HERO) program where he taught after-school classes in reading and art. His students will not soon forget the lesson on Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel, "for which I had the students lie on their backs and paint paper attached to the underside of their desks."

In addition to his literary and musical endeavors, Tyler has been recognized by the USDA for his work in developing a durable paper from the non-indigenous pondweed Hydrilla verticillata. He authored a multilingual manual on tropical agriculture, Useful Tropical Plants and Their Climatic Zones, for the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization.

Tyler's interest in languages has taken him to France and Spain, where he enjoyed studying chamber music in Normandy and researching Cuban poetry in Spain's National Library for his thesis translation of José Martí's Ismaelillo.