Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Edward Lansang, and I am a student entering my third year at Queen's University, in the faculty of Arts and Sciences. I am appealing to drop courses BIOL 243, BIOL 205, CHEM 211, BIOL 202, GEOL 104, and MATH 121. I am also appealing for course credit in BIOL 201. These courses have made up the bulk of my studies in my second year at Queen's University. Regretfully, my academic performance over the past year have been greatly affected by personal issues of depression and anxiety, stemming from identity crises and a loss of self. To put it simply, I thought I had my life figured out, when in reality I was the farthest from; the truth was slow in coming, and by the time I saw things were going horribly wrong, half of the 2016 spring semester had already passed. I realized that I had been struggling with mental health issues for a long time, and I began to finally see how my life had degraded over the past two years. I realized that I wasn't as close to my friends and loved ones, that I took no pleasure in doing things I used to enjoy, and that I walked around feeling like an empty shell when alone. I thought that science was my path in life. Much of my family before me were doctors, so I saw myself following in footsteps, per se. But now I realize that I wasn't doing things because I enjoyed them. I was doing them because they were what I had told myself I wanted to do. So I forced myself into doing my work, not realizing that I hated it the whole time. I could not perform properly in my studies, because I could not bring myself to study properly for work I did not enjoy. Still though, it took my time and effort, but since I wasn't enjoying my studies, my grades did not reflect my effort. My poor performance demoralized me greatly, and as a result it became more and more difficult to do work consistently. I would alternate between periods of depressed apathy and stress-induced anxiety.

Thankfully, Queen's University is the best university, and I have nothing but gratitude for all of the resources around me in the community. I was able to seek help from professionals, both in terms of academics from Academic Advising and in terms of my mental health from Student Wellness Services. I plan to continue seeing counselors, and switch programs once I find what it is I enjoy doing. My planned course load for next year is varied and different from anything I had been studying in the past, and I am excited to see what else there is out there in the academic world. Over the summer, I hope to find employment in order to reorient my work ethic, too. At Student Wellness Services, I partook in a similar, but different, version of the standardized aptitude test, in which the questions asked me to select from a group of options (careers, study areas, coworker types, hobbies, etc) that which I could see myself doing, and that which I could see myself enjoying. I am awaiting the results of this test now, and am hopeful that the results can help steer me in a direction. This appeal would help me get a fresh start on my academics, as well as help me get past a difficult point in my life. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Edward Lansang