STARTING OUT: Alex Gertner ’10

Associate in the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch in New York City. Princeton major: anthropology, with a certificate in ­global health and health policy.

What he does: While six researchers in Gertner’s division travel around the world documenting human-rights abuses, he does the “behind-the-scenes work,” he says, which includes doing research for reports, tracking expenses, making travel arrangements, supervising interns, and managing the website.

Rewarding work: “A lot of the work I do is administrative. But I’m doing it in a place where the ultimate goal is to improve the lives of people everywhere and ensure that they are able to live with dignity. That makes even the smallest task rewarding,” says Gertner, who found out about the job through the director of his division, whom he met through his Princeton anthropology professor, João Biehl.

Most difficult: Gertner gets phone calls from individuals looking for help (such as legal representation), but Human Rights Watch isn’t a direct-assistance organization. “It’s hard to get those phone calls ... and have to say to them, ‘That’s not what we do,’” says Gertner.