Divya Thomas
An unexpected change in plans can be a blessing in disguise. As Divya Thomas (First Class Honours BA 2021: POLI/ESS) enters her second year of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program at HÂţ», it’s a lesson she’s taken forward as her career plans have developed.
“I knew I wanted to do something after my undergrad, and I really thought I wanted to do law school,” says Divya. However, as she explored her options, “I realized focusing on government and public policy would allow me to engage with my interests in a more meaningful way.”
Reassessing her next steps, Divya looked into different public administration and public policy programs, finally applying to HÂţ»â€™s MPA. She initially saw the program as a bridge to law school but was surprised by how much she loved her first year of the MPA program. The content in her classes, a mixture of field-relevant research methods, statistics, and economics, aligned perfectly with her career interests.
“I realized I didn’t actually want to go to law school, and that this degree was the perfect one for me,” says Divya.
Although her first year of classes was held online, she connected with peers and classmates through an intermural soccer team and student societies. Divya was a first-year rep for the Public Administration Student Society (PASS), and she’s now the incoming 2022/23 PASS president.
She has a personal source of inspiration and motivation: her mom, who returned to school later in life and graduated from Dal with an MPA Management degree in 2018. Divya has memories of watching her mom juggle parenthood and university homework.Â
“That resilience has always been something I’ve kept in the back of my mind as I’m doing my studies,” says Divya. “My mom taught me that you can do anything you set your mind to … that you can always go back, you’re never too old for school, and if you fail, or you fall, you can always get back up and try again.”
Originally from Ontario, Divya and her family moved to Nova Scotia when she was still young. Her dad, Dr. Nikhil Thomas, works at Dal’s Department of Microbiology & Immunology. After beginning her undergraduate studies at Dal as a Political Science and Economics student, Divya switched from Economics to Environment, Sustainability & Society (ESS) when she realized how much she enjoyed the first-year ESS course she had taken as a writing credit.
“I found it had a great balance – it wasn’t just focused on the environment, it was also focused on politics, social issues, and civil society,” she says. “It’s a very well-rounded program that complemented my political science degree well.”
She notes that the ESS program influenced her Political Science honours thesis – supervised by Dr. Kiran Banerjee – which focused on climate-induced migration and government perceptions of that issue.
The ESS program also provided Divya with valuable job skills. For SUST 4001/4002 (ESS Capstone), Divya was part of a student team that consulted with the Government of Nova Scotia’s to write a wellbeing index for persons living with disabilities. The team developed an index that informed Access by Design 2030, a framework for achieving greater accessibility in Nova Scotia.
“It gave me insight on project management and just how complex it can be,” she says. “Having multiple perspectives and sources of input can be difficult for a project’s development, but it taught me that effective policies are created when everyone has a place at the table. It strengthened my ability to come to decisions while considering those perspectives and fostering consensus through cooperation and engagement.”
As part of her MPA program, Divya recently completed a co-op term as a consultant at Deloitte, and she credits her ESS Capstone experience with helping her ace the job interview and get the position.
Alongside her graduate studies, Divya is currently contributing to discussions about how to improve the academic experience for a wider range of students at Dal. Earlier this year, she joined the College of Sustainability’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility (EDIA) committee as a student representative. The EDIA committee is working to examine curriculum development, syllabus review, and other ways to help make the College a more inclusive space.
“HÂţ» has diversity,” says Divya. “And that’s a start. But it doesn’t really mean anything if there’s no culture of inclusion. You can have all the diversity you want in a room, but if people don’t feel like they’re in a safe and inclusive environment, that’s unreached potential. We need to create a culture of inclusion for there to be true diversity. It’s a two-step process.”
What’s next for Divya?
As she completes the final year of her MPA program, she is also working as a graduate research assistant with Dr. Sherry Pictou and the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre (MDCC). She will begin work as a part-time Policy Analyst at Employment Social Development Canada (ESDC) in November. Most excitingly, Divya’s summer co-op was a success! When her co-op concluded, she accepted a full-time job offer as a consultant at Deloitte starting in September 2023.
Her advice to other students considering graduate studies: whatever happens, don’t give up.
“Make sure you’re doing what you love, and not what you think you’ll love,” she says. “And be flexible with yourself.”
(October 2022)