Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science,
My name is Serena Bent, and my student ID number is 20440139. I am asking to drop STAM 200 (winter 2024) and receive Credit standing in PHAR 100 (fall 2023), GNDS 125 (fall 2023), PSYC 100 A-B (fall 2023- winter 2024), and GPHY 101 (winter 2024). As I had discussed with Haley Everson on September 4, I will discuss the circumstances from this past year that have impacted me to preform to my highest ability academically for your consideration. My mother was diagnosed with cancer, Multiple Myeloma, in 2020. The cancer causes the bones to be very fragile and break easily. In July of 2023 before the start of my first year at Queens my mother shattered her elbow while on our family vacation to Wasaga beach. She needed to have a total elbow replacement due to the fact that the cancer had eaten away at the bone. She had major mobility issues during her recovery and rehabilitation after the surgery and needed more assistance with daily tasks. A month later in August of 2023 my uncle my mothers younger brother passed away shockingly and this was a few weeks before my first semester at Queens. As our family was grieving the loss of my uncle, my mother also needed more assistance day to day which I provided during the day as I live with my parents. Her medications she was on made her dizzy and I wanted to be able to be with her through the day till my father arrived home from work, to be able to provide any help throughout the day. In March of 2024 my father had to be rushed to the heart institute as he went into arrhythmia, and he required surgery which meant he was in the hospital for multiple days. My mother had to receive new cancer treatment mid July 2024 that was supposed to have her in the hospital for a week while she received the new treatment. With no warning from the medical team on August 8, (a year and a day after my uncle had passed) my mother passed away in the ICU while my father and I had been waiting in the hospital to be able to visit her. I have had a really hard time to focus on doing schoolwork throughout this year as I would be trying to do work at night, because during the day I would be monitoring my mother, I had trouble keeping up with timelines as it had been a lot on my plate. I am currently receiving grief counselling to try and help me move through this trauma and immense sadness. I have also lowered my course load to only 2 classes this semester as I need to be doing something, but a full course load was too much to fathom at this time. I have attached a letter from my father, and my mothers death certificate.
I hope to hear back from you and thank you for you consideration.
Warm regards,
Serena.