(Metro News Service) Once a new school year begins, students soon find themselves back in the hustle and bustle. Extracurricular activities likely will figure prominently in students' and parents' schedules.

Extracurriculars offer many benefits to students, but also come with a considerable commitment of time and even money. The University of Florida notes that a study of more than 13,000 tenth graders found that, on average, the teens participated in two to three extracurriculars and spent about five hours per week on them. While moderate involvement in these extracurriculars was found to improve academic performance, at very high levels of involvement (more than 14 hours a week), teens' academic well-being declined.

The most obvious benefit of extracurriculars is spending time with like-minded peers who share the same interests. But there are many additional and lesser-known benefits of extracurricular activities.

· Take healthy risks. Extracurriculars enable students to try something out of their comfort zone. This is low-stakes risk-taking where students can try, sometimes fail, and brush themselves off to try again to build confidence.

· Become civically minded. The University of Florida also notes a study of 1,000 teens who were followed from high school into young adulthood as a testament to the potential benefits of extracurriculars. Study participants who were involved in extracurriculars were more likely to vote, volunteer, and be psychologically healthy, well-educated adults.

· Strengthen executive functioning skills. Extracurriculars can help students coordinate complex, non-academic tasks, such as organizing a play or musical performance. They also help to rewire the brain to handle stress, collaborate, and manage multifaceted projects.

· Motivate kids to exercise. Though not all extracurriculars are physical in nature, many are. Sports help kids be more active in ways that may not seem like the work of heading to the gym, according to WebMD. Those who regularly exercise are at lower risk for many health conditions, including high cholesterol and obesity.

· Students can reinvent themselves. Extracurriculars offer students a chance to get a break from how they may be seen at home or in school. If a student is dubbed "the science kid" in a different setting, an extracurricular may afford him or her a chance to try on a creative persona. Similarly, a typically quiet student may be gregarious when participating in the school play. Extracurriculars enable reinvention and can help kids find their real voices.

· Make learning fun. School can be taxing on students, especially by the time they reach high school. Extracurriculars can renew students' passions, especially when they choose an activity for themselves that they truly enjoy.

Extracurricular activities enable students to adopt new personas, make friends, boost physical and mental health, and realize long-term advantages as they age.