Line up 100 Stanford Law School graduates and ask them about their careers. You will find almost as many career paths as graduates. Our grads are practicing law in firms, in government agencies, in nonprofits, and in corporations—in this country and around the globe. But our graduates are also appointed or elected to office as judges, ambassadors, and legislators; they are starting or running companies, big and small; they are journalists, professors, investors, and philanthropists. And some could mark (almost) “all of the above” on a multiple-choice questionnaire about their careers. This should come as no surprise. Our graduates have learned about the law and the legal system, and they have learned to be powerful legal advocates. But they have also learned how to think rigorously and systematically; to untangle and analyze the different strands of complex issues; to solve problems; and to lead.

In this issue of the magazine, we feature a group of graduates who have chosen to take all that they have—their talent, their learning, their skills, and their passion—and devote themselves to advancing the public good as they see it. These graduates have founded, or hold leadership positions in, nonprofit organizations. Their work could not be more varied—delivering medical care to impoverished Nigerians; increasing the racial diversity of computer programmers; watching over thousands of Christian missionaries working in some of the world’s most dangerous places; helping lead an innovative charter school organization; advancing the rights of women; and defending the legal rights of students.