Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Sirs and Madams,

My name is Alexander Singh, and I will be starting my second year at Queen¿¿s University this September. This letter is in regards to my academic performance since I began here at Queen¿¿s. The past few years, I have experienced academic struggles in high school that has now continued into university, and it has taken a serious toll on my mental, emotional, and even physical health. I have searched for many ¿cures¿¿ and forms of aid or treatment, but could not decipher what the real issues were.
Growing up in my household was an extremely stressful environment. My father was in a major motor-vehicle accident and suffered a severe brain injury. He had many violent outbursts that were very traumatic for my entire family. I had the support of my mom and two older sisters to help me with school related issues and tasks, but as I grew older I began to struggle but did not think much of it. Instead my family and I thought that working harder and studying more was the answer; this was a very short-lived solution. We began to reach out to many additional resources, including a Hypnotist, Psychologist, and finally a Psychiatrist where I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and ADHD during this Summer 2015. Anxiety and Depression were a result of the high stress home environment, then I was diagnosed with ADHD in addition to these emotional symptoms.
My life has been a rollercoaster ride for many years with far more downs than ups. Without knowing that I suffered from anxiety, depression and ADHD, I began to believe my poor academic performance was going to be the norm. With a lot of hard work, extra tutoring and sacrifices, I was accepted into the Science program at Queen¿¿s University. But with this fact alone, it made it hard to believe that I could have any sort of disability.
I have found it very hard to keep up with the course material, and found myself always falling behind. Even today, my life feels like I¿¿ve been barely keeping up, just enough to get by. Schoolwork makes me feel extremely anxious and I become very stressed out and overwhelmed. Preparing assignments and studying for tests are a struggle as well and because I am unable to focus or concentrate I have been unable to present or retain the information to complete these tasks. No matter how hard I tried it was a continuous struggle. It seems impossible to sit down and work on assignments or general studying. With this style of learning, my inability to concentrate and focus became even worse.
An additional stressor was my living situation. I had a roommate who was very difficult to live with. I was managed to cope with him for one semester but then made a request to change my room. This was disruptive for me, as I had to adjust everything and get resettled as if I was moving in again.
Now that you have a better understanding, it is clear that I do have the ability to succeed here at Queen¿¿s University. I have worked extremely hard to get to this point and am determined to continue and complete my education at this University. I have struggled for many years but have now found the reasons why I have experienced these struggles. I would like to request to drop the Winter 2015 course of Physics 117, and count the other three courses (Geology 106, Math 121 and Biology 103) as credit standing. I believe that this is not a true reflection of my ability, and if given the chance I know I can succeed and fully enjoy my time at Queen¿¿s University.
Thank you very much, and I appreciate your understanding in this matter. Documents to support this will be submitted to the Faculty office.

Sincerely,
Alexander Singh