Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

New Information: ACADEMIC PLAN:

In terms of my course off study, I propose to stay in the same degree program (Economics) and area of concentration (Arts). What I and Dr. Tonya Bauermann in Queen¿¿s Counselling Services feel my best path to take for next year would be to repeat the first year path of an Economics major. This would entail retaking ECON 110 and MATH 121 or MATH 126. In terms of academic preparation, it wasn¿¿t that I had difficulty with the first year Economics course content during the 2015 Winter term. Though MATH 121/126 (first-year calculus) has posed some issues for me in the past, I have a strong and confident background in math, and I feel like my first-semester results for MATH 121 were because of a lack of focus, dedication, and the necessary time you have to spend on more difficult (compared with non-university level math courses offered in high school) math courses. Now that I am fully aware of the effort and tick-to-it nature that will be necessary for me to succeed in first-year calculus, I am confident that I am prepared enough to succeed in it specifically. Furthermore, in terms of my choice of academic program, I think that it fits well in terms of my interests, strengths, and academic background.

In terms of my intentions with respect to work load, I intend to have a full-time status, taking 4.0-5.0 course credits a semester. My expectation is that I will be able to manage this amount of class and work (15-20 hours/week of class and 20 or more hours off studying/work outside of class time). As academics are all that I am prioritizing for this coming school year, I doubt that I will even consider or look for part-time job opportunities, as I want to spend most of my time, effort, and concentration on succeeding academically. However, if it is suggested or mandated by the Associate Deans of Studies, through the appeal process, that I instead take a more part-time approach to my studies, I will accept the suggestion/mandate should it indeed be in my best interests and parallel to how I have equivocated my situation during the 2015 Winter term.

In terms of my strategies for success, they are 7-fold (with the recurring theme of consistency/regularity, which I believe to be the keys into both setting myself up for both academic and social success at Queen¿¿s and as regulation of a healthy, balanced lifestyle both academically and socially are the key to never getting anywhere close to where I was during the 2015 Winter term).
1.) Sleep and sleep patterns (going to bed at an at least relatively consistent time and waking up at a relatively consistent time)
How this was different:
I. Inconsistent and varying length/duration of sleep.
II. Inconsistent and varying time of sleep (i.e. when in the 24 hour period of a day they were occurring; sometimes would sleep normal hours, like 11 pm to 8 am, but most of the time completely irregular, like 4 am to 1 pm or 10 am to 7 pm).
2.) Eating; diet and nutrition (maintaining a well-balanced and consistent diet)
How this was different:
I. Though what I was eating was in relatively good balance and nutritional, I was not eating enough (maximum of 2 full meals a day).
II. Anxiety related to seeing both friends and just lots of people when going to the cafeteria at regular, ¿¿peak¿ hours (I would specifically go right at the beginning or right at the end of the eating periods to avoid the majority of people/interaction).
3.) Attending all classes and tutorials, seminars, etc. to the best of my ability
How this was different:
I. Rarely attended classes during second semester and didn¿¿t attend a single tutorial, seminar, or class-supporting subdivided session.
4.) Getting out of my room/house regularly and getting exercise
How this was different:
I. Being on West campus definitely contributed to my lack of going outside and my lack of participation in physical activity (as there was no easily accessible or readily available means of physical activity by any means on West), as having to go all the way to Main campus consistently is quite a nuisance. However, the onus is also largely on myself, for not making enough of an effort to keep a balanced lifestyle. Nonetheless, the fact that Main campus will be much more easily accessible for me this coming year will without a doubt help alleviate this particular issue.
5.) Getting out of my room/house regularly and both participating in and enjoying social situations
How this was different:
I. For almost all of my day, I was locked up in my room, doing nothing in terms of looking to participate in social situations and to try to set them up for my enjoyment. In fact, I was so secluded that basically the only time I would venture outside of my room was for meals or the odd few obligations that I had maintained doing (like drivers lessons that were preparation for my G2 licence test).
6.) Communicating weekly with my parents as to my struggles, triumphs, and how I am doing in general
How this was different:
I. The longer the Winter term went on, the more and more I¿¿d put off and reschedule my weekly skype calls to my parents (important in our/their situation as they are international teachers currently working in Venezuela). I did this for a number of reasons, all resulting from my psychological condition at the time (the troubles and the lack of success it was leading me to experience). On average, I probably only talked to my parents every 2 weeks, so that is something that I should look to improve and regulate in this coming academic year.
7.) Having regular consultation/counselling sessions with a personal adviser (and seeking help out from other sources as well, like local time management and study skill-developing and refining resources at Queen¿¿s, not necessarily when or after I start to fall behind but pre-emptively as well)
How this was different:
I. I was completely opposed to the idea of talking to anyone about what I was going through at the time because I hadn¿¿t even come to accept and understand it myself. Now that I have done both and talked to multiple professionals, I know that having someone I can talk to honestly about anything will help me at the end of the day. Even though I will try to be up front and honest with my parents about how I am doing week-to-week, in the case that I find it hard to tell them about my situational failures because of guilt or letting them down, it will be important to me to have someone else to talk to about what is really going on (i.e. missing a class or multiple, falling behind, social anxiety, etc.)
II. I in no way at the time thought that it was my time management or study skills that put me in the position that I was in, and while they weren¿¿t the root cause by any means, they can only help improve and bolster my academic success.

At this point, I realize that I may not be completely 100 mentally healthy or ready to be a successful student. However, what I do know is that I am getting quite close to what I consider to be a healthy, ready, and successful mindset, especially academically. I do realize that it is indeed a process, and because of that I have had 2 appointments at Queen¿¿s Counselling Services (with Dr. Tonya Bauermann), and I intend to have regular counselling appointments with a psychologist/professional outside of Queen¿¿s. I will communicate with Dr. Bauermann and Queen¿¿s Counselling Services and who they would advise me to try to see considering who is best suited to address my personal difficulties.

I feel as though I am realistic in my thinking of how I will be affected long-term by the psychological troubles I experienced. I do understand that I had some situational troubles, a lot to do about both academic and social adjustment at Queen¿¿s, but I do feel like I made large strides to overcoming these difficulties. In terms of some of them, like social adjustment, I had them completely figured out in my first term/semester at Queen¿¿s, so other than getting back into the regular flow of them, I am not at all concerned about having to re-adjust or re-learn the strategies which I had already figured out. I am confident that at the end of the day and in the long-term, my academic plan really WILL set me up for success, and that I am confident in its process for doing so.

New Information: AMENDMENTS (ADDITIONS) TO LETTER OF APPEAL:

After going over my letter of appeal with Dr. Tonya Bauermann at Queen's Counselling Services 2 days after I submitted it and talking through it, there were some things I realized that I didn't include which importantly pertain to my psychological condition during the 2015 Winter term and therefore the Associate Dean of Studies making an informed decision on my case and on my appeal.

The first was about when I visited Queen's HCDS about my ritalin prescription for my diagnosed ADHD and concentration issues. After talking to both a psychologist and psychiatrist at HCDS, it was confirmed to me that I either needed my past documents from my psychiatrist in Amman, Jordan (where I had lived for the 8 years prior to coming to Queen's) about my ADHD diagnosis or I needed the testing to all get done again. As both my attempts to find the file which my psychiatrist provided me/my parents with, and my attempts to try to get into contact with the psychiatrist (Dr. Nasri Jacir, whom I tried to contact multiple times via e-mail and phone), I completely gave up, as new testing would take a minimum of 4-8 weeks to be processed and come back, and there were less than 2 months left of the Winter term.

Secondly, and more simply, I happened to forget and omit the fact that I was so inclined to give up, especially mentally, by the end of the 2015 Winter term, that I didn't even bother cramming for nor attending a single one of my end-of-term exams.