Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: February 4, 2023



Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,
My name is Olivia Leon and I am a second-year student at Queen??s University. I am petitioning to drop ITLN 111 (Fall, 2021) and PSYC 100 (Winter, 2022) from my transcript. These are courses I took during my first year at Queens. During that same time, I was horribly sick. I was diagnosed with strep throat for the first time in the middle of fall 2021. This issue would soon become severe and multiple emergency room visits, IV drips and antibiotics were to follow. As a person who has been diagnosed with general anxiety disorder at the age of fourteen, I knew that this unexpected illness would further trigger me. During this time of my sickness, I was also prescribed anti-anxiety medication by my doctor. I filled out many extenuating circumstances forms, emailed my TAs and professors consistently and tried my best, but unfortunately, it was not enough to save my grades. This year, I am proud to say that I much healthier and thriving in school. During last semester (Fall 2022) I was able to achieve a 3.6 GPA, which is something I am extremely proud of. I promise that I am not a ?bad?? student, I enjoy school and learning, I was simply dealt a bad hand. The reason I wish to drop ITLN 111 and PSYC 100 is because it is the only two courses that I managed to fail. The rest of my courses carried a much lighter load in the aspect of assignments, midterms, and quizzes, in comparison to ITLN 111 and PSYC 100. Now, as I am working hard to correct my GPA, these fails are weighing it down heavily. Aside from my GPA, I wish to hopefully minor in psychology. In order to do so, I need at minimum a B to a B+ to be considered for this minor. I would like to retake PSYC 100 so that I can achieve this goal and one day become a therapist. I did not drop PSYC 100 or ITLN 111 during this time because I had hope that I would be able to excel. The ER doctors told me that if I were to properly finish my antibiotics, which I did, then my strep throat would not come back, or at least not as severely as the first time. Unfortunately, my tonsils were not spared of this illness and the strep throat soon became tonsillitis which was followed by an abscess removal and finally a tonsil removal surgery that had been cancelled twice during the year; the third time was truly a charm but that surgery did not occur until late August of 2022. The state of my sickness was completely unexpected as I did not have a history of strep nor was I prone to ER visits. The severity of each time my tonsils flared up was completely unanticipated because there would days where I felt completely fine and during random times, especially at night, I would be abruptly woken up by the inability to breathe due to the swelling happening inside my throat. I apologize for the sickly details embedded in this petition but I do not know how else to describe the severity of my sickness during that time. Thank you for reading my side of the story and I hope that a change can be made so that I am able to achieve my future goals.
I will include all of the necessary documentation of my illness as given to me by my doctor.


Sincerely,

Olivia