By RORY MCCARTY

Senior Reporter

Some Pontiac Central High School freshmen are looking up to several Oakland University students to guide them as role models.

Since January, members of Revive, Educate, Dream, Change Our World have been working with OU’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs and the mentoring program Winning Futures.

Jessica Reese, REDCOW’s vice president, said every mentor in Winning Futures at Pontiac Central High is a member of REDCOW.

“They serve as a positive role model [the students] can adapt to,” said Jonathan Parks, REDCOW’s advisor from Pre-College Programs department.

Though part of Parks’ job is to advise REDCOW on things like what sort of projects they should take on, he said they already had it figured out.

“They had a plan, they knew exactly what they wanted to do,” Parks said. “They just hit the ground running … All the pieces just jelled.”

“We get the mentees to talk about their strengths and weaknesses, and we help them learn leadership roles and how it can help them in college,” Reese said.

She said mentors in REDCOW get to know students better by putting songs that make them happy and sad together on a CD. They also talked about how attitude is important to leadership.

Reese said she also made Valentine cards with her mentees to deliver to American House senior citizen homes.

REDCOW was formed last September.

“We felt like the campus was missing something, and we wanted to fill that void,” said Norris Chase, president.

Reese said the goal of REDCOW is “to provide social and political awareness through community service, campus involvement and academic enrichment.”

Since the formation, members worked in a haunted house and packaged clothes to be shipped across the world for Remnant Project Ministries. Future plans include forming a team for Relay for Life in March and working with Habitat for Humanity in April.

REDCOW also hosts study nights in the Oakland Center’s Lake Michigan Room on Mondays and Thursdays, where everyone is welcome to attend.