Devon Matthews

Devon Matthews (BA IDS, 2016)

Fellowship Program Manager at Engineers Without Borders (Toronto)

Only two weeks after finishing her degree, Devon Matthews was hired by her internship placement.

In between her third and fourth year of university, Devon Matthews travelled to Malawi on a co-op fellowship with NGO Engineers Without Boarders Canada . Acting as an embedded consultant, Matthews worked on a research project focusing on water and sanitation.

Since 2016, Matthews has worked with EWB at their head office in Toronto, Ontario. Matthews also spends two months of the year overseas in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana.

EWB looks to address root causes of poverty and provide systemic change through leadership in Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa. The organization also invests in enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For over a year, Matthews worked as a fellow recruitment and logistics coordinator. She says her duties involved tracking, reviewing and hiring volunteers, partnership management and any logistical work involving the placements, such as booking insurance.

You can’t sit around and gripe. You actually have to do something.

In August, Matthews was promoted to fellowship program manager. With three full time staff members and one consultant, Matthews manages four fellowship programs.

“I think one of the most valuable things is seeing how people have applied the skills that they’ve learned or the impact they’ve had for their future careers,” says Matthews.

Recognizing the terrible and then moving forward, working hard and doing something to change that.

Matthews is originally from Vancouver Island, British Columbia and started her undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria. In 2013, Matthews transferred to Dalhousie University specifically for the International Development Studies program.

“It was fantastic,” Matthews says of her experience at Dalhousie. “I learned the things that I needed to get a job and do what I wanted to do.”

Matthews says the IDS program taught her to research, write and communicate with others. Beyond these practical skills, Matthews says she also learned to be careful and think critically about working in development. However, she discourages stagnated action.

“You can’t sit around and gripe,” says Matthews. “You actually have to do something.”

“Recognizing the terrible and then moving forward, working hard and doing something to change that.”

Think about the skills you are learning and what you can bring to the workforce, think creatively about possible job opportunities, network and make connections with professors.

Matthews’s advice to international development students: think about the skills you are learning and what you can bring to the workforce, think creatively about possible job opportunities, network and make connections with professors.

“IDS is really only useful to what you put into it,” says Matthews. “You have to put in a lot and work really hard.”

In 2016, Matthews graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in International Development Studies and Environment, Sustainability and Society.

Matthews says her current career at EWB is directly related to what she learned at Dalhousie University. She says she learned many applicable skills in her IDS undergraduate degree, including monitoring and evaluation, research, grant writing, activism, communication and fieldwork.

“There’s aspects of all courses that I took that I use on a day to day basis,” says Matthews.

For Matthews, her professional highlight with EWB took place while she was still in school. During her co-op placement in Malawi, Matthews says she realized that she was well equipped for development-related work because of the skills she gained from her education.

There’s aspects of all courses that I took that I use on a day to day basis.

“It was really telling that I had learned something at Dal,” says Matthews. “All of the different pieces of the puzzle that I thought were abstract became realized in real time.” 

“I’m in a position right now that I wouldn’t have gotten had I not been in my degree,” she adds.

I’m in a position right now that I wouldn’t have gotten had I not been in my degree.