Spring break has arrived, and the entire student body, with beer in hand, will recline into several days of cranial hibernation to recover from the midterms they barely studied for. Well, almost.

Some students are actually willing to sacrifice their leisure for a week of strenuous labor. Surely, some might think that this must be a mark of some form of masochistic insanity, but it's not. In fact, it's noble.

Students from the Wesley Foundation, University Church and St. Thomas Aquinas will be spending the break in rural communities in Appalachia and in urban areas in New Orleans. These students find a higher reward in helping others than in guzzling beer and lying on a beach.

Their mission trip will consist of demolition, construction and landscaping work. They will be helping people in need, and their rewards will come not in the form of inebriation, but in a sense of fulfillment.

It's good to know that college students are willing to sacrifice the chance to shirk all responsibility. After all, wild, reckless spring breaks — drinking, sex, relaxing and sex — seem to be a rite of passage for students, even if the parties are more wasteful than fulfilling.

Students taking the break to help people in need takes levels of caring, initiative and sacrifice that reflect well on a person's attitudes toward the importance of human life. Other than personal reward, this will also help volunteers when it comes time to find a career.

The best thing about volunteer work is that you don't have to travel half way across the country to help someone in need. Students staying in the Greater Lafayette area will be doing volunteer work in homeless shelters — the same shelters that have been in danger of closing. And students who are going home can spend their time doing the same. It's all about helping others.

However, most students aren't doing this and they don't have to. The point is not to make you feel guilty about having fun and getting drunk because there really isn't anything wrong with it. It's great to relieve stress this way.

But while you are relaxing on the beach or just visiting with the family, give a thought to those who are working hard to improve someone else's life.

Maybe you can even make plans to do the same next year or the year after that. The sort of memories it would produce are superior to the vague, hung-over recollections of a night before.