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Travis Lee Tindell

Biography

Highlights of Young Scholar Experience:  The Foundation provided many supportive resources to “strengthen my abilities and develop my confidence.”  The total Young Scholar experience, he said, “carried me through the most rigorous courses offered at my high school during the most difficult of times.”  Having the opportunity to participate in Johns Hopkins University’s CivicWeek in Washington, DC to work with the homeless developed his strong sense of social responsibility to bring about awareness and action.  As far as summer involvement, Travis studied aerospace basics and aviation at his current undergraduate institution, Embry Riddle, and music at Florida State University.

 

Profile:  Travis said he takes pride “in being so tenacious, because this trait pushed me to excel and reach my potential.”  A well-rounded young man who hopes to become an aerospace engineer, Travis has all but completed work for his pilot’s license, but his true love is music, both performing and writing compositions.  He also was an honor student at Saint Cloud High School in a rigorous all AP and College Dual Enrollment program while balancing a variety of extracurricular activities. He is creative, perceptive and visionary. “When I take on something, it is always whole-heartedly and with a passion that can endure through any hardship in the way.” 

Inspiration:  He thanked a high school, dual enrollment English professor who instilled in him a zeal for learning. But it was his grandfather, who joined the Air Force to fight in the Korean War and never got to finish high school yet became a self-taught nuclear engineer for NASA and later a Walt Disney Imagineer, that first inspired Travis to pursue aerospace engineering. He taught him anything is possible if you want it and go for it. An inspirational moment was when his flight instructor sitting in the co-pilot seat of the Cessna 152 Travis was piloting for the first time radioed to the airfield tower: “Ready for take-off.”  Travis pushed up on the throttle, pulled back on the yoke of the controls and soared above the Florida coastline.  “I realized then that nothing can stop me from reaching my goals and aspirations and I savored every second I was in the air.”

 

Aspiration:  Engineering, aviation and music will be part of Travis’s life. He hopes to design and create future space exploration and inventions for society to make life a little easier for everyone. He plans to participate in community outreach in college and hopes to continue to study design in graduate school. Because music is so influential, he would like to one day write a music soundtrack for an award winning film. On the lighter side, he hopes to join the sky-diving team at Embry-Riddle. 

Making a Difference:  Travis remains active with Civil Air Patrol earning the rank of Sergeant Airman where he is responsible to perform search and rescue missions for local and national emergencies as a scanner for downed aircraft.  He’s also donated countless hours as part of the Saint Cloud’s Silver Cloud Community Orchestra, helped organize the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for the past five years and co-founded an organization called Kids Helping Kids, which raises money for local homeless families and for children who were victimized by the tsunami in Sri Lanka. He actively assists his local Audubon Society by monitoring an eagle nesting site with rare twin eaglets and reports the actions and violations of developers in the area. As a member of Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society for High Schools and Community Colleges, he provides free tutoring to other students who struggle with math like he did initially, until the Foundation provided him with an outstanding math tutor. He started his school's first Physics Club to create an interest in physics within the main student body. He enjoys any opportunity to be active with his church and community and to work with people.

Accolades:  In June of 2008, Governor Charlie Crist appointed Travis a Florida Ambassador of Music, one of eight such individuals who toured with an orchestra representing the Sunshine State in Europe to promote goodwill.  He represented his high school as a Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Ambassador and as a Boys State Representative. He was also nominated to participate in the National Youth Leadership Forum and was selected to be a People to People Ambassador.  Active in marching band, he performed solo on baritone, leading his high school marching band to the school's first ever win in a State Competition qualifying them for Nationals in Atlanta, GA.

Interesting fact:  For the Orlando Philharmonic’s Young Composers Concert Competition, Travis composed an original symphony entitled “Royal Advent,” that included three movements for a full orchestra. His favorite pastime is fishing with his grandfather. Oddly, he collects bottle caps of all kinds to create a unique collection from all over the world.  

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