Tom Cruz goes to Oakland University.

No, not the Hollywood actor married to Katie Holmes or “Top Gun” star. This one’s a student.

With a resume including titles ranging from the multi-cultural affairs director for OU Student Congress; educator for Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity; district secretary treasurer for the Michigan District of Circle K International; a group facilitator for leadership challenge; a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, OU’s political science honor society; and a member of Phi Alpha Theta, OU’s history honor society, Cruz has been actively involved with school activities and organizations since he was in high school.

By the time Cruz graduated high school, he was working three different jobs, taking two college courses, involved in eight extra-curricular activities and graduated in the top 10 of his class, with honors.

“When I came to OU I kind of had some of that build up and I hit the ground running,” he said. “I immediately got involved with student government. I first came to OU with a lot of aspirations of what I was going to do. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I knew I had a lot of energy to do it.”

His freshman year at OU, an organization called Mustang recruited Cruz to start a new fraternity, but the organization fell apart that winter. His sophomore year, Cruz decided he wanted to organize his own fraternity.

“It was something that I was really passionate about and something I thought would be passionate for other people,” Cruz said.

Cruz started Tau Kappa Epsilon in Fall 2008. It was the first fraternity that didn’t have a discrimination clause, allowing students in regardless of race, orientation and religion. Tau Kappa Epsilon is now the largest fraternity at OU.

That same semester, Cruz also started the Circle K International chapter at OU. Circle K is an international community service organization that has middle school, high school and college levels.

“OU used to have an active Circle K, but it got dismissed a while ago so I was able to bring it back. It just focuses on helping children all around the world,” Cruz said.

In addition to his involvement with student organizations on campus, Cruz also carries a full academic schedule. He is a double major in political science and history with a triple minor in economics, international relations and communications.

Cruz originally came to OU with hopes of pursuing business and politics and while he was working his way through the prerequisites for his business major, he realized that business just wasn’t for him.

“I started looking at some of the higher level business classes I had to take and I realized I wasn’t really passionate about these things,” Cruz said. “I withdrew from them and decided to pick up history. History is a passion of mine. I love learning about history and things like that, so I just added that on as another major.”

In addition to his two majors, he said that he decided to minor in international studies after realizing his credits from history and political science could double count. Economics is a passion he discovered when pursuing his business and communications degrees, seeing it as something that could be integrated into his other studies.

While Cruz has been studying at OU, he has also been working simultaneously toward his associate of arts degree from Macomb Community College. He is currently in his fifth year at community college.

“I’ve been taking my gen-eds still to this day,” he said. “I’m taking them at Macomb and having them transfer … I only need to take about six extra credits at the institution to get a bachelors of arts from there.”

Next year, Cruz plan to run for student body president with Brett McIssaac as vice president,  getting the Lumberjack club up and graduating with his degrees.

“I first met Tom as an enthusiastic freshman who wanted to start a new fraternity,” said Mary Beth Snyder, vice president for student affairs. “He’s now a senior and still an extremely enthusiastic advocate for Oakland students in so many ways.”

Though Cruz is not the famous couch-jumping actor, he is trying to make an impact at OU through his involvement in the different organizations.