Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello, my name is Devon Lio and I am appealing to waive a request to withdraw for 1 year. The last 2 years have been extremely hard for myself mentally and emotionally as I have suffered from social anxiety and depression for a long time. I found it very challenging for myself to deal with the new life living away from home and found it difficult through my anxiety depression to attend many classes during the week in order to avoid being in a social situation and become very nervous. This unfortunately led me to drop classes in order to keep up with the work load which was too difficult with missed lectures and labs, resulting in poor grades which is not to my full potential whatsoever. I have seen various psychologists and specialists throughout my life when I was a child, but most recently in the past 3 years I had been seeing Dr. Gerrard for my mental illness various times from 2012, during my last years of high school until 2013, which was during my first year of university. He ultimately decided medication as treatment, but extenuating circumstances, including vacations and going back to school I lost contact with him and when I tried to reach out for him earlier this year found that he is no longer practicing psychiatry and had to find another therapist. Attached is a letter from Dr. Glenn Mitges noting our current therapy and progression, along with recognition of my earlier psychiatrist Dr. Gerrard whom I was seeing from the years 2012-2013. I have made a lot of progression this summer towards working with myself and I am very confident I can go back to school in September and reach my full potential, I do not want to let my mental illness hinder my abilities and I am working every day to improve myself and my well being and hope that I can be back at Queen's University this fall.