Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean,

Firstly, I'd like to say that I am sending this petition late as I have finally found the strength to write this petition, after years being unable to write this letter due to feelings of shame and the fear of being re-triggered from my trauma.

I'm writing to file a petition to drop the following courses without academic penalty:

SOCY235
HIST267
HIST254
SOCY389
HIST401
HIST400
HIST283
HIST242
HIST337
HIST260
EMPR230
SOCY284
HIST473
HIST401
HIST246

I came to Queen's as an academically strong student and even in my first year, I was able to do well as I was excited to pursue my dreams of academia in a university with a strong reputation like Queen's. Another reason I had chosen Queen's was to gain some distance from my complicated family situation that had come with its own set of problems including developing an eating disorder. Despite this, I managed to thrive academically in first year and find my passion for both history and sociology, as I was determined in my goal of further education at Queen's. I was managing a healthy balance of academics and my mental health when in December of 2020, I was sexually assaulted by a fellow student at Queen's.

This completely devastated the balance I was maintaining and impacted all aspects of my life, including physical health, mental health, and my academics. This horrifying experience plunged me into a worsened mental state where I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety, during which I had attempted suicide multiple times. It was at this time that my eating disorder worsened tremendously so. The extreme weight loss I suffered ironically led to a diagnosis of weakening tissue around my joints, which had been cause of the mysterious joint pain that I had been suffering for years, but it was only when I had become extremely underweight that my pain was being taken seriously by medical professionals. All these difficult circumstances that spiralled from the sexual assault made it so that I lost all hope in a future in academia or a future at all.

It was a few months after this that I was referred to a counsellor at Queen's, Dr. Arunima Khanna. I'm grateful that this intervention by Student Wellness Services occurred at that point in my life because it was a point in my life where I did not care what else happened to me and I had given up all hope in any sort of future. In addition, I was experiencing a lot of shame, guilt and denial from the recent sexual assault and believed that despite obvious signs that my mental and physical health was deteriorating, that I did not need help or that I was not deserving of it. The mental health triage nurse at Queen's pushed me to meet with Dr.Khanna in April of 2021 and thus began my journey to where I am now.

My journey to recovery has been very long and arduous and it has not been linear in any regard. During this time, there were times when things would seem a little better and I was able to direct my attention back to academics, but there were mostly periods full of hopelessness during which I was seeing multiple therapists and trying to unpack my trauma and think of ways to cope better with my extreme depression, anxiety, and eating disorder. It was also during this time that an occupational therapist at Queen's brought to my attention that part of the reason why I might be having so much trouble trying to focus my attention back on academics while juggling my mental health issues is because I may have developed a form of trauma-induced ADHD. This also led me to seeing more therapists and doctor to address this problem, alongside my other mental health struggles.

I have worked incredibly hard to reach this point and to survive. This past month, I feel that I have turned a corner as I've been able to finally find the right medication for me after more than a year and a half of trying all sorts of different medications. This medication has also allowed me to engage more productively in therapy and has allowed me to begin using some of the coping strategies that I've been trying to build to for the last two years. Noticeable improvements in my mental health began to foster feelings of hope in me for the first time in a very long time and I have been able to turn my attention back towards my academics. I have been able to meet with my counsellor, QSAS advisor and an academic advisor to evaluate and come up with a new plan and I am now excited to get my fresh start and regain some of that passion that had been taken from me.

I am really looking forward to continuing my academic journey with this new start and I hope in light of the circumstances that I have outlined in my letter, that you will be able to grant me this appeal so that I can move forward with reclaiming my academic and career goals. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Best regards,
Sophia Kim