Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing this letter of appeal due to psychological disorders and challenges that have greatly impacted my grades negatively the last school year. I am looking to request late drops in courses and also a credit standing (CR) in a course in order to help my academic standings.
During the last half/semester of my senior year in high school (grade 12) I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. Due to this I was constantly tired, lack of energy, fluctuating between insomnia (unable to sleep) or hypersomnia (sleeping too much), even small tasks take extra effort. There was continual stress on me due to school/grades and family issues. Depression also give me feelings of sadness, emptiness or hopelessness, worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures and loss of interest or pleasure in most things that I used to once enjoy. Needless to say these factors not only affected everyday life but school as well.
In grade ten I moved to the U.S. which had a complete different education system and curriculum compared to Canada. I had to switch to a new school each year, for two consecutive years. I was overloaded with school always trying to catch up to my new school classes and reached my limit. One thing about my depression that¿¿s a little different is that the problem manly started from school and pressure on myself/ from my family. I had no support with my mental illness and was often suicidal. Only in the second half of my senior year I was able to seek help with my psychiatrist, who was able to give my family a much better understanding of my situation. I started to build back up my life with my family being more supportive.
First year here at queens everything was going well, but my depression soon caught up with me, and I was overwhelmed by it. I couldn¿¿t bring myself to do anything school related without bad memories and feelings of uselessness. My grades started to drop again, I couldn¿¿t keep up. Depression also greatly impacted my health and I had trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things, which mainly applied to schoolwork. Worst of all I had no support system here in Kingston with my family being so far away, so I started to fall deeper. It was only after I came back from home after reading week that I decided to get back on my feet and reached out/sought help on campus, I went to Jack.org presentations dealing with depression, appointments with Health, Counselling and Disability Services, and even joined the bounce back program. But it was already a bit too late in to the year and there were a lot of things that I just couldn¿¿t catch up on. When I went to a counselor and then an academic advisor at the end of the year I found out that I had the option to apply for an appeal due to the extenuating circumstances of my mental illness that happened beyond my control. When I went back home I started to improved greatly on my condition. I no longer have trouble for everyday tasks, I have been feeling a lot more energetic and my physical health is also slowly recovering. I wasn¿¿t able to see my psychiatrist until mid-august and again early September when I received my doctor¿¿s note. I told him how everything seemed to be doing well except my struggle to focus in school, I could no longer study like I did before when I was a straight A student, I was frequently forgetting appointments, commitments, and deadlines, I couldn¿¿t follow lectures, I would always find myself slowly zoning out, always having trouble starting and finishing projects and I had trouble staying motivated. My psychiatrist then did some tests and I found out that on top of depression I also had Attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD). This explained a lot of difficulties that I had to face regarding studying and school, while others with depression didn¿¿t have the same problem. Now my performance has greatly improved with the proper medications.
The metal illnesses which hindered my potential and my performance in school was beyond my control, they have directly affected my academic performance. I would like to be granted late drops in courses and also a credit standing (CR) in a course in order to reflect my actual abilities and not be viewed by the results affected due to my mental health. Thank you, I appreciate the time that you have taken to read my appeal.