Recent headlines haven't been kind to Como Park Senior High in St. Paul, but a spring break road trip this week proves it has many students who yearn to be leaders.

More than 40 teens left the school on Saturday for a five-day trip that includes stops in Iowa, St. Louis and Memphis -- with the latter to include a tour of the National Civil Rights Museum on Monday.

The students, part of an on-campus group called Dare 2 Be Real, also are performing service projects along the way. On Sunday, they cleared invasive plants from along a creek in Iowa City.

The trip is being documented on Twitter via the hashtag #ComoOnTheMove.

Dylan Hackbarth, a school counselor, said that students involved in Dare 2 Be Real work together to identify and combat systemic racism in their immediate community and the broader world.

"These kids are awesome," he said.

The trip is being funded by a non-profit group, Students Today Leaders Forever, of Minneapolis. College visits also will be part of the itinerary, Hackbarth said.