As spring break season comes to a close, many students will return to campus, alas, with stories of acting up, boozing up, and hooking up.

Others, like those featured here, are returning with life-affirming stories of volunteerism.

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Some completed the service near their homes or schools. Others traveled internationally. But for all, their willingness to serve is inspirational — both to their peers and to the community — and the life-changing wisdom they gained from it can’t be taught in any classroom.

“When young people spend their breaks volunteering at home and abroad, it’s a win-win,” Sean Edmund Rogers, a professor at the S.C. Johnson College of Business at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, told LifeZette. “Not only do local communities benefit from the increase in services — the students gain fulfillment by participating in meaningful activities.”

Young people from Baldwin Wallace University were busy spreading out around the country to do good works this spring. More than 40 students from the Berea, Ohio, college looked not for party time but for projects be involved with and to complete.

The BW Alternative Break (BWAB) service program sent student volunteers to Texas, Georgia, California, Florida and Washington to volunteer for a variety of community engagement projects, the Strongsville Patch reported.

Olivia Mego of Strongsville, Ohio, participated in a project through a BWAB partnership with World Hunger Relief, a Christian group whose mission is “the alleviation of food insecurity and malnutrition through sustainable agriculture and community development,” as the Patch noted. Mego performed chores at the organization’s Waco, Texas, farm over spring break.

College students aren’t the only ones working on spring break service projects. Senior Lauren Hunter of Knoxville, Tennessee’s Bearden High School began her annual spring break service tradition in her freshman year, at age 14, reported Bearden Bark — the school’s newspaper.

This year, she’s leading the effort. Through Praying Pelican Missions, Hunter led a group of seven people on a mission trip to the impoverished Central American country of Belize this spring. Participants shared their testimonies and fielded prayer requests. Her inspirational title for the group is “We Belize in Him,” as the Bark reported.

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In another example of the American spirit of service, football players from the University of Southern Mississippi traveled to Mexico in March to build a more solid home for a family that had been living in a camping tent, the Hattiesburg American reported.

Golden Eagles Drake Dorbeck, Paxton Schrimsher and Cody Block “classify themselves as forever changed from the experience and already have plans in the works to return,” noted the publication.

Related: How These College Students Strive to Maintain Their Faith

These are just three examples of those who are stepping up to lead rather than following the herd. They come from public and private schools and from all walks of life, but they have maturity, kindheartedness and passion in common — qualities that will serve them well as they move forward in their lives.

Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to LifeZette.