Each year, Fine Arts presents the Victoria Medal to the student who earns the highest grades. This year, we are pleased to honour Caitlin Pierce, who not only graduates with a BFA in Writing but has also achieved a 9.0 grade-point average: in other words, a perfect GPA.
“This medal is a much deserved and wonderful validation of all that Caitlin accomplished as an undergrad,” says Lee Henderson, Writing professor and current department Chair. “She has a wild imagination, a storytelling talent that is truly remarkable and her writing is unmistakable for its originality and depth. I’m so happy for her to receive this accolade!”
Describing her as both a heartfelt, caring writer and a supportive, highly regarded member of UVic’s writing community, Henderson notes that Pierce has consistently been a strong and passionate advocate for her peers: she always seeks to uplift, in both her writing and her community relations.
While Pierce excelled in her Writing courses, she also diversified her academic portfolio by taking electives in health, philosophy, art history and visual arts, reflecting her rich and thoughtful approach to life. In fact, this is her second UVic degree, having already earned a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology back in 2017.
A working phlebotomist with Island Health since 2019, she decided to return to UVic in 2022 after taking the memoir-writing course “Chronicling the Stories of Your Life” through UVic’s Continuing Studies. “I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, I really do actually like this: I’m going to apply!’,” she says.
Caitlin Pierce in the Writing office
“I started in the Sciences because it was the expected thing by my parents, to maybe be a doctor — because there’s this universal idea that you’re never going to get paid as a writer — but after COVID happened I started wondering why I was doing it,” she admits. “I mean, it’s a useful job, but I don’t really enjoy it. So I figured now that I have a career to fall back on, maybe it’s time to chase my dreams instead.”
When asked how she achieved such a notable GPA, Pierce said it came down to “just showing up and really enjoying the work I was doing. I think that’s the difference between this and my first degree: I’ve really, really enjoyed this one and it felt like what I was supposed to be doing.” She pauses and laughs. “Okay, maybe a bit of perfectionism helped too.”
When asked for particularly influential faculty members during her degree, she quickly singles out the likes of creative nonfiction authors Deborah Campbell and David Leach, poet Marita Dachsel, fiction writer Yasuko Thanh and art instructor Cliff Haman. Pierce also gives a big shout-out to her parents (“they’ve been so supportive!”) and her partner Eliza Musselwhite, who is also a Writing alumna. “I don’t think I could have done any of this without them,” she says.
Professor Henderson recalls being particularly struck by Pierce’s latest work this past spring while she was participating in a field school on relational aesthetics and fiction at the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park on Hornby Island, with whom Fine Arts has a dynamic partnership.
“Her writing project was one of the most innovative and unexpected stories I’ve come across: a historical novel that is also science fiction, yet also a story about trauma, survival and loss,” he says. “Her novel-in-progress is a perfect example of the richness and thoughtfulness of her writing. Caitlin is a novelist to watch for, an important emerging voice in contemporary literature and someone I’ll be forever grateful I had a chance to work with.”