If I may, in the 15-odd-years that I've been writing reference letters for students and looking at student resumés, I haven't seen a single student who has not volunteered. They don't just volunteer at one place, either; they volunteer at 20 places. These resumés are astounding. It's quite different, and it's a generational difference. When I was a student, all you had to do was get through school and move on, and this has changed. What I see in students volunteering is a range of volunteer opportunities that seem strategic and instrumental, and others that are clearly not, others that are similar to your experiences
All students know that, and I would certainly say that's true, but I'm also sometimes worried that this massive amount of volunteering that at times happens alongside paid work and worrying about getting excellent marks to get into postgraduate programs is taking a toll. We are seeing something of an epidemic of mental health problems at universities that I'm sure you're all familiar with, and I can't help thinking that some of that may be related to the overextension in volunteering, paid work, and just chasing the top marks in order to get into postgraduate programs. That seems to be something that's unique to the last 10 years or so.