Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Appeals Committee,

My name is Mahad Abdirahman, and I am a Biology student here at Queen's University. I am writing to appeal the grades I received during the following Semesters:Winter 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, and Fall 2021. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to explain the circumstances that affected my academic performance.

During my first year at the university, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer and was hospitalized in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, where I frequently commuted to visit him. Tragically, after five months of intubation, he passed away. This loss profoundly impacted me, and I struggled to cope with the grief during the subsequent academic years. Despite this, I continued to push myself in my studies to earn my degree from the university I admire greatly.

During the winter of 2019, after visiting my 96-year-old grandmother I began to notice her growing physical limitations and cognitive decline. I took it upon myself to visit 2 times a week while taking a full course load to aid her in anything that she needed help with. I continued the back and forth trips from Kingston to Ottawa throughout my winter 2019 and fall 2019 semesters and in March 2020, I had to relocate to Ottawa due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I then moved in with my grandmother, who suffers from dementia, and became her primary caregiver. The isolation and caregiving responsibilities, coupled with the fresh grief from my father's death, were extremely overwhelming. In hindsight, I realize I should have communicated my situation to the university. However, I believed I could manage both my grandmother's care and my studies. Unfortunately, my grades for those semesters were marked as incomplete and later changed to failing grades.

I respectfully request the university to consider dropping those semesters from my transcript, allowing me to graduate. Queen's University has been my dream institution, and I am determined to complete my degree here.
Thank you for considering my request. I am hopeful for a positive resolution that will enable me to achieve my academic goals.

Sincerely,
Mahad
SN:10182114