Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing this letter of appeal with regard to my Psychology 100 (PSYCH100) course from the Summer 2015 Term. During the span of the course, I had taken part in a humanitarian volunteer trip to Ukraine that had unfortunately compromised my ability to succeed in the course. The Ukraine Volunteer Trip, organized by a community center in Sarnia, gave me the opportunity to work with underprivileged students in orphanages for a period of four weeks spanning from May to June. Prior to this trip, I had planned my psychology study schedule around my day-to-day activities in the trip. I assumed that my schedule would work out as planned as I was informed prior to the trip that there would be consistent internet access. However, when I had gotten there, not only was I was placed in an accommodation with no internet and I only had access to it once or twice a week, but I no longer followed the given schedule and was unexpectedly assigned more work hours. Thus, this compromised my schedule for this course. Moreover, the lack of internet access disabled me from contacting the TAs to inform them of my dilemma. As a result, I also missed multiple assignments, online quizzes, and group activities. When I finally returned to Canada, I tried my best for the final exam but the culmination of missed assignments and quizzes during the Volunteer Trip had still left me with a low overall mark. I was at Good Academic Standing during my first year (GPA 3.9), but the outcome of this course completely disrupts the reflection of my academic performance (GPA 3.37).
I am very passionate about sciences and humanitarianism which has helped me envision a career in Relief Aid. This volunteer trip has been one of the most significant reasons why I am pursuing this career path but it is regretfully now the reason for my low academic score. It is for this reason that I am appealing to the Faculty of Arts & Science to strongly consider removing this mark from my transcript.