So what does this mean for college students? Is it worthwhile to focus on developing communication skills? We asked Professor from the what he thinks.

Dr. Tyler Fisher is a Spanish professor in the and the .

Do you agree that STEM and language arts are complementary skills?

They can be, yes. Students who develop a narrow specialization in one STEM area could profoundly benefit from developing skills in a second or third language. Doing so would equip them to communicate aspects of their specialist, technical expertise into that target language.

And for their part, students of languages would benefit from acquiring first-hand awareness of one or more STEM disciplines. At the very least, they would gain a working knowledge of the scientific method. I relish the “permission” that language learning grants us to consider any and every field of human knowledge — and to consider those fields at their most fundamental (their technology, lingo and jargon) and their most innovative (how to express the latest developments on the furthest frontier of a STEM field, for example.)

than for programming and even engineering majors in the future. What’s your opinion?

There is no need to pit the liberal arts against programming and engineering. The liberal arts, historically, encompassed seven domains of higher education: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. The well-educated individual sought to master each of these domains in an integrative program. In other words, the complementarity of STEM and languages was already acknowledged at the dawn of university education. If we are now rediscovering their complementary nature, it is an ancient recognition that we only misplaced by stereotyping fields of knowledge into unnecessarily restrictive pigeonholes.

What do you see a modern language education offering that a STEM education might not provide?

Ultimately, language and culture are inseparable. We cannot understand one very well, if at all, in isolation from the other. The advantage of language learning, for me, can be summed up in one word: access. Access to ideas, to cultures, to the world. Creating access is fundamentally what we do in .

When we teach a language, we create access to other ways of thinking, perceiving and expressing. When we translate, we facilitate access to other peoples, cultures and worldviews. When we guide students through a piece of literature, we render accessible the best that has been imagined across time and place. When we help heritage speakers improve their first language, we offer access to their families’ deeper past and present. Acquiring a second or third language is an eminently transferable skill that enhances our students’ career prospects, cultural literacy and access to greater opportunities worldwide.

What are some things you suggest students do to be the most well-rounded graduates possible — and therefore increase their employability?

Students would do well to take advantage of the years they have during their undergraduate studies, in whatever field, to allow themselves to read and reflect on the nature of the knowledge they are gaining: How rapidly will this knowledge become dated? How might it apply to what they’ve learned in the past and what they hope to learn next?

In this vein, I would encourage students to read at least two books – not textbooks – in their field each semester. Even while holding down one or more part-time jobs during their undergraduate years, which many Â鶹ԭ´´ students do, they are unlikely ever to have that amount of time or energy available again for highly intentional reading and reflection. More importantly, the practice of regularly reassessing the inherent limits and latitudes of one’s knowledge cultivates a versatility of mind, akin to what I’ve been discussing here in relation to language acquisition.

Contrary to what the great Oz tells the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, achieving a diploma does not confer some kind of substitute for brains. Real fluency, in languages as in any form of literacy, is an ongoing proficiency one must actively maintain even after the B.A. or B.S. certifies one’s attainment in a particular subject. Prepare to adapt. Be equipped to innovate.

The idea for supporting these projects came from Margery Pabst-Steinmetz and Chuck Steinmetz. Pabst-Steinmetz is a long-time supporter and advocate for caregivers, having organized programs to help individuals use art as a way to express themselves and promote self-care. This is the couple’s first gift from the newly-merged Pabst Steinmetz Foundation.

Fourteen teams from across the university submitted proposals for the award and the winners were selected by a panel consisting of members from the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Nursing, the College of Medicine, and several community members.

Read on to learn more about the award-winning ideas.

Bringing the arts to the elderly

As Central Florida’s population ages, new initiatives are needed to make sure elderly residents are happy and healthy. “The Arts and Aging: An Interdisciplinary and Intergenerational Initiative” brings together the College of Arts and Humanities, College of Medicine, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts to show how the literary and performing arts can be used to improve elderly well-being.

Elements of the ACA’s Creative Caregiving program, which brings arts and wellness practices to Volusia County’s elderly residents, will be integrated into the Big Read. A nationwide program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Big Read encourages reading for pleasure through the sharing of a good book. Research shows that reading reduces stress and slows the onset of dementia, so the team behind “The Arts and Aging” will be coordinating its own Big Reads at area nursing homes and wellness facilities.

Additionally, theatre students taking the course THE 5677/4674 “Health & Wellness for the Performing Arts” will partner with medical students to visit these facilities and see the ACA’s Creative Caregiving program in action.

The faculty members, students and ACA members working on this project are:

Helping new mothers through animation

The postpartum recovery period can be a stressful and confusing time for new mothers. The Modern Languages and Literatures department, the College of Sciences, and the School of Visual Arts and Design’s animation department plan to help by creating “Positive Parenting” videos. These videos will outline the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s nine tips for parenting of infants from birth to year one. However, instead of just stating these points, the videos will present them as memorable fictions or fables. They will be offered in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.

The faculty members working on this project are:

Recipients ranged from an international expert who discovered water and organic molecules on an asteroid, to a researcher who has received millions of dollars in grants to study how our body’s natural antibiotics fight diseases, to a computer scientist who revolutionized the way videos are streamed on the Internet.

Other awards were given to honor excellence in research, professional service, outstanding theses and additional categories, along with milestone anniversaries at the university.

“The achievements we recognize today confirm the merit of the past efforts of our founders and demonstrate that our dedication to excellence continues in this the 50th anniversary year of our great university,” President John C. Hitt said during the ceremonies.

The gathering was held in the Student Union, with employees, retirees, past honorees, family and friends in attendance, along with Dr. Tyler Fisher, Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s first Rhodes Scholar visiting from the University of Oxford. Fisher is visiting the campus as part of the university’s 50th anniversary events.

A reception was held afterward.

For more on today’s winners, go to these stories:

Please bring us up to date on your career.

After continuing at Oxford for my doctorate in Medieval and Modern Languages and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Spanish literature, I currently teach Spanish language, literature, and history at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

Who inspired your achievements at Â鶹ԭ´´?

My Â鶹ԭ´´ professors, without a doubt, were the inspiration and catalyst for what I achieved at Â鶹ԭ´´ and beyond. I am especially grateful to my mentors, Dr. Barry Mauer, Dr. Jayashree Shivamoggi, Dr. Alberto Villanueva, Dr. Kevin Meehan, and Dr. Richard Tucker.

Where have your educational travels taken you?

My educational travels began at Â鶹ԭ´´, where generous scholarships from The Burnett Honors College enabled me to pursue my language studies in Spain twice and chamber music studies in Normandy. In more recent years, I have had the opportunity regularly to conduct research in British and Spanish archives and to give academic talks at universities as far afield as Portugal, Ireland and Kuwait.

What other activities were you involved in at Â鶹ԭ´´?

I was most involved as a resident assistant in Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s Libra Community. Resident assistants don’t simply oversee security and discipline in their buildings; they also cultivate an on-campus educational community beyond the university classrooms. My residents and I built wooden rafts on Lake Claire, launched a recycling program and held philosophical discussion groups.

I also value the experience I gained from teaching after-school classes through the Honors Elementary Reach Out program.

What are your fond memories of Â鶹ԭ´´?

Perhaps the experience that stands out most fondly and vividly in my memory is that of carrying an enormous bow and arrows across campus for one of Dr. Allyn Stearman’s presentations. Dr. Stearman, then dean of the Honors College, conducted anthropological field research among the Yuqui people, an indigenous tribe unknown to the wider world until they were contacted in the Bolivian lowlands in the 1960s. It was my task to transport the samples of Yuqui hunting equipment (arrows the size of javelins!) from Dr. Stearman’s office to the auditorium.

I was only a freshman, in my first semester at the time, and weapons from the Amazon seemed to have nothing to do with my major. But as I paraded across campus with these artifacts — naturally attracting many curious stares — suddenly the world seemed much more open, a distant tribe much more tangible, a topic of research from another discipline much more within my reach. The experience impressed the idea upon me: I can access the world here at Â鶹ԭ´´!

What do you like to do for relaxation on your own time?

England has a wealth of ancient, well-preserved footpaths, and one can simply follow them from town to town, village to village, stopping at quirky old pubs along the way. I love going on long walks with friends. In fact, I can proudly claim to have walked the entire length of the River Thames, from its source in the Gloucestershire hills to the Tower of London. I also continue to write poetry and folk songs. Doing so provides me a refreshing perspective on creative texts. After long stretches of analyzing poetry in my teaching and research, it is invigorating to see it from another angle as a practitioner.

What are you looking forward to in the years to come?

I am looking forward to completing some major book projects in the next couple years. Specifically, I am working on a book about early modern devotional customs in Spain and their relationship to the literature of the period, and another on the question of why giants loom so large in Hispanic cultures, from Don Quixote’s windmills to Goya’s colossus.