At 7:55 a.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning, Lisa Zelenak, a Rochester Hills sophomore waits to greet freshmen for Academic Orientation outside of Pearce Hall.

The orientation mentor chats with other mentors and waves a large, red flag that says, “The Red Rockers,” a symbol to identify the Red Team of orientation.

She doesn’t just stand on a rock, however. She tosses her flag around in color guard fashion and waves on a Central Michigan University van traveling between the buildings.

“She’s so intense,” said fellow mentor and Caspian junior Erica Lake.

As the freshmen and their parents arrive, Zelenak follows her team into Pearce, chatting with them easily about their sports and high school activities.

They join Zelenak’s partner, Muskegon senior Greg Zietlow, in a classroom, where everyone introduces themselves and the introduction to CMU begins.

The mentors help new students learn the lingo of CMU, the alcohol policy, discuss possible roommate issues and explain the process of scheduling.

With Zelenak and Zietlow’s encouragement, the students begin to relax.

And that’s exactly why Zelenak is a mentor.

“It’s a lot of fun not only to get them excited about Central, but to let them know it’s going to be OK,” she said. “A lot of them are freaked out.”

Zietlow, a second-year mentor, said orientation has been a blast.

“It’s a lot of fun getting to know people right before they get acclimated to college,” he said. “We are kind of their first contact.”

Zelenak’s inspiration to become a mentor came from her own mentor last year.

“I became a mentor because of him and how he helped me throughout (the year),” she said. “I had someone I knew on campus.”

Following lunch, the mentors treat the students to several educational skits and singing and dancing to several songs before helping the new students adjust their class schedules.

“Dancing is my favorite part,” Zelenak said. “It’s fun for us, instead of just taking them through the basics. We can have fun too.”

As an education major, Zietlow said he became a mentor to help the new students advance to what they are going to do.

“I really enjoy helping them schedule. You get students who have no idea what they area doing,” he said. “They are going crazy because they’ve been there for five hours and they get completely frustrated. There’s no better feeling.”

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E-mail the author: Lindsay Knake