Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: My name is Adam Quast, I am a fourth year statistics major graduating in the winter semester of 2024. I am requesting credit standing in BIOL 102 and CISC 101, due to struggles with undiagnosed ADHD and mental health during online school in my first year. I have been prioritizing my graduation preparation and utilizing many Queens academic supports. When I met with Spring Forsberg, an academic counselor, she let me know that I could apply for this academic appeal as my recently diagnosed ADHD and struggles with mental health that it caused while it went undiagnosed may also be grounds for granting an appeal.

I struggled throughout my first three years at Queens. Staying on task with my work, remaining engaged during lecture and motivating myself to finish assignments to the best of my ability were all very difficult for me despite my efforts to create better study habits and improve my time management. No matter what strategies I used to try and improve my focus and productivity, I was still unable to finish exams on time or finish assignments within the same time range as my peers. In the winter semester of my third year (January 2023) I reached out for help to get through mental health struggles I was facing. In May of 2023, after finishing my third year, I was diagnosed with ADHD. The support from the Queens Wellness Centre as well as external supports helped me to understand why I was unable to reach my full academic potential and perform to the best of my ability in my classes. Undiagnosed ADHD was the root of many of my mental health issues through my first year at Queens. Problems which were amplified in my first year (2020-2021 school year) due to it being online the whole year. This made the transition to University much harder, causing a multitude of struggles for me. Online school alongside my undiagnosed ADHD made it very hard to develop good study habits and stay engaged in the lectures, causing me to struggle to complete BIOL 102 and CISC 101 to the best of my abilities.

I am requesting to waive the one year deadline because I was not diagnosed with ADHD until May 2023 which was after the petition deadline, furthermore I was not aware of the services and support available to seekout aid with problems like this. I learned that academic petitions and appeals were an option after talking to an academic counselor about graduation requirements in my fourth year fall semester (November 2023).

Thank you for your time and consideration.