For Caitlin Garfias, life as a UFV student was more than academics. It was also a deep journey of self-discovery and growth.

Caitlin convocated this past June, after completing a Bachelor of Arts with a focus on Media and Communications in April of 2025. In the time in between Caitlin had to reinvent herself, something she had to do once before, when she first became a student.

This time around, she felt more prepared for that reimagining of self.

“I’ve been getting to relearn who I am, and not as a student,” says Caitlin. “I’ve been reconnecting with things that I’ve put on the wayside.”

Part of Caitlin’s student journey was learning to understand her Autistic identity.

“Throughout my time with academia, I’ve been so focused on my Autistic identity and being Autistic, and what that means not only personally, but also in the form of academics and research,” says Caitlin. “I’m having to remember I’m not just Autistic.”

“I just have to be myself, kind of separate myself from the label of being Autistic.”

A large part of Caitlin’s time at UFV was spent conducting research with instructors, and for directed studies. The focus of her work was on autism and how it is perceived.

She leaned heavily on her media studies to look at how the Americanization of information (the tendency to view Canadian culture through the lens of American culture) harms the perception of many disabilities in Canada and the rest of the world. Eventually, Caitlin took it upon herself to put information out there.

“I see Autism as an exposure disability,” says Caitlin, “If you know, you know, if you don’t know, you don’t know. My biggest thing is just putting the information out there and letting people access it if they want to.”

Caitlin’s journey didn’t end when she graduated. Since 2024, she’s lived in Yellowknife and Whitehorse, where she has had the opportunity to experience entirely different perspectives around Autism.  And she’s become a part of a local autism support community via Autism Yukon.

Caitlin has continued her academics and is looking at publishing a paper on Instagram and autism self-expression.

“One of the benefits of my media communications minor is applying it to real world issues,” says Caitlin.

When she started exploring social media, she found that the algorithm had filtered her out of autism content. This is because she appears as someone who doesn’t need additional support online.

“I realized my algorithm was filtering out a lot of things,” she says. “Issues such as marginalized voices not being heard and Black Autistic folk being tone-critiqued. It made me aware of how much my algorithm was isolating me from the autism community at large,” says Caitlin.

Since then, she’s been focusing on producing social media content that provides an authentic and personal exploration of her own journey. Before she started university, she says she would not have had the confidence to take on such a project. Now that she’s gone through the research process and discovered who she is, she believes she is able to advocate for others.

“It’s a huge strength of mine to be able to take my personal experience and look at it through an academic lens, but then also realize that there are so many lenses outside of that,” says Caitlin.

When Caitlin thinks back on how she is able to do this work today, she remembers her years at UFV fondly.

“I have my degree right in front of me right now on my wall,” she says. “And I’m looking at it and I’m not thinking about the grades I got. I’m not thinking about how hard it was. I’m just looking at it and going, I am a way more accepting person of myself because of that degree.”

Caitlin credits the time she’s had to reflect since graduation to solidify what she wants to do next. To her, success isn’t so much about a career, but about being her authentic self.

“For me, success is being able to go about my day and just thinking, I’m able to do this,” says Caitlin.