Since we’re in college, we’re expected to know something about needless suffering in the world — and even to care about it. But there’s little expectation to know about solutions to this suffering. And there’s even less expectation to promote them in the real world.

Fortunately, not everyone feels this way. Every other week, we met “social entrepreneurs” who were, without a doubt, much cooler than we are. Not only did they know and care about social problems, they had practical ideas about how to improve them.

Is local poverty intractable? We met Elliott Brown, a Stanford graduate who realized that one of the biggest problems that the poor face is not finding a job — but creating a career. Brown started Springboard Foward in East Palo Alto to help end poverty through job-coaching and support for the working poor.

Can technology really help the poor in Brazil? We interviewed Melanie Edwards, a Reuters Digital Vision fellow who realized that Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, could help the “invisible” poor of Brazil. Her organization, MobileMedia, employs Brazilian youth with PDAs to register the uncounted people of Brazil for social services and benefits.

Is modern healthcare out of reach for developing countries? We spoke with David Green, who started Project Impact to help bring down the prices of key medical products. He developed technologies and production strategies aimed at maximizing distribution — not profits. He does this all while still making his businesses economically sustainable.

Do consumers even care about “fair-trade?” The social entrepreneur Paul Rice started TransfairUSA to find out. After working with farmers in Nicaragua for 11 years, he returned to the United States to help market fair trade products. More consumers than ever are buying fair trade goods that in turn help the farming communities that create those products worldwide.

Is the issue of human rights best left to the United Nations? Armed with video cameras and expertise, Gillian Caldwell has helped local organizations and individuals to capture human rights abuses on film. As the executive director of WITNESS, she works with local communities and NGOs to film human rights abuses, using the footage as leverage to create change.

One last one: Is it possible to help start small businesses in Africa? Stanford graduate and engineer Martin Fischer helped to do just that. With his organization ApproTEC, he created and marketed water pumps in Kenya that allow people to grow crops throughout the year. It has helped tens of thousands of Kenyans increase their income ten-fold.

So when we say these people are cooler than we are, we mean it. Collectively, these entrepreneurs and their organizations have improved the lives of thousands of people who otherwise would have gone without basic life necessities.

Why don’t we hear more about the solutions to the problems? In part, because there are no perfect solutions. No one thinks they have “solved” poverty or human rights abuses or unfair trade. No one thinks that their solutions didn’t also cause some problems elsewhere.

But that didn’t stop them, and it shouldn’t stop us. There are no perfect circles or perfect term papers or perfect business plans — but this doesn’t stop us from designing, writing or creating. Everything has a cost, and everything has a flaw. The question is, on balance, are we doing the best we can?

Before we go, we would like to thank some people who helped us put together this whole thing. Thanks to all the students in FUSION (in particular to Tony Wang) and to all the people and organizations we interviewed, bothered, etc. We appreciate it.

Finally, thanks to all the people who e-mailed us and approached us to tell us how meaningful this column has been to them. This support and interest in our column and interviews has made us feel that the entire effort has been worth it.

Is this the end of social innovation? Graduation marks the end of our time with this column, but not social innovation. Rather, graduation marks the beginning — when students stop being students and, with luck, become advocates for positive social change.

Adam Stone (Class of 2003) and Lija McHugh (Class of 2005) are finally graduating and will hopefully go do good things in the world. If you consider yourself to be social and innovative and are thus interested in writing this column next year, e-mail them at astone@stanford.edu and lmchugh@stanford.edu.