UBC Journalism graduate Megan Devlin has been awarded a prestigious EU-Canada Young Journalist Fellowship, which includes a week-long tour of the European Union institutions in Brussels.
The fellowship recognizes outstanding young Canadian journalists and is intended to spark greater coverage of issues in the European Union.
Prior to the trip to Brussels in October, Devlin will be honoured at an awards ceremony in Ottawa co-hosted by the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Office of the Speakers of the House of Commons.
In Brussels, she will attend the daily European Commission press briefing, which boasts one of the largest press corps in the world.
“I’m really honoured and grateful,” Devlin said. “I’m hoping to report some really interesting stories that I would never have had the opportunity to otherwise.”
Devlin will be joined by fellowship recipients Marie-Danielle Smith, a National Post reporter, and Jennifer Ackerman, a journalism student at the University of Regina.
‘We don’t live in a bubble’
Applicants were asked to submit a story about the European Union, with judges eyeing journalistic qualities such as research and accuracy.
Devlin’s winning entry included a CBC story about millenials who voted to leave the EU in the Brexit referendum.
Megan Devlin, centre, reporting in Bangalore with Prabhu Mallikarjunan, left.
Devlin spoke to frustrated millenials who cited the economy and sovereignty as reasons for leaving the EU — complicating the narrative that the pro-Brexit movement skewed toward older voters.
“They were saying that they got some kind of backlash,” said Devlin, who covered the story while interning at CBC’s London bureau.
“I thought that was an under-reported aspect of it.”
During her trip, Devlin will be studying public health models in the EU, building on her coverage of Vancouver’s opioid crisis and inmate health care in Canada.
She’s also eager to continue reporting abroad. Devlin was a fellow last year in the International Reporting Program, covering urban farming in Bangalore, India for BBC News.
“We don’t live in a bubble. The world is more than just Canada,” Devlin said.
“I think it’s important to surface stories from elsewhere. It can help us learn a lot about ourselves and about the world at the same time.”
