Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Friday, September 9, 2016

To Whom It May Concern:

Due to extenuating circumstances, I would like to formally request credit standing in several courses that I have taken during my first two years at Queen's University, as well as request to drop four courses from the winter 2016 semester.

In March of 2012, I was in a car accident that left me with a severe concussion. After being diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome in April of 2012, I was required to leave my boarding school in Peterborough, Ontario, to recover at home in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the duration of the school year. Due to my adequate academic standing prior to the incident, I was still allowed to graduate high school. I received an evaluation from a neurological specialist during my time at home for the duration of the summer. I was officially allowed to return back to school after that summer.

In Fall of 2012, I returned to Ontario to attend my first year at Queen's University. Unfortunately, I noticed that my learning abilities had been hindered, although I was unaware at the time that my challenges were due to the effects of the concussion I had sustained. I had been familiarized with university-style learning in high school when I successfully participated in three Advanced Placement courses in my grade 12 year. Knowing that I was capable of learning in a lecture and independent study environment, I was frustrated when I was unable to learn at the same pace as before. I noticed that I was regularly unable to keep up in class, and that I had a particularly hard time focusing in lectures and while independently completing readings, research, and assignments. I also noticed that it was taking me much longer to process what I had learned, that I needed to take more frequent breaks while studying, and that I had a harder time remembering information from lectures and readings. My doctors were informed of my struggles along the way. As a result of these challenges, I quickly fell behind in my courses during my first year and became extremely overwhelmed. I dropped a course in an attempt to reduce my course load, and decided that it would be best to extend my time at Queen's over five years instead of four to give myself more time to work on my courses. Despite this reduction in work load, I was still extremely behind in my remaining full- and half-year courses. I had a hard time attempting to catch up, and became increasingly frustrated when I felt inadequate and unintelligent due to my reduced ability to retain information. I was also receiving significantly worse grades than I had earned in high school; I went from being an A and B student to receiving Cs, Ds, and even Fs on assignments and tests. As a result of feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and incapable, I fell into a depression during most of my first year. Due to my depressive and anxious state, I lacked motivation to leave my residence room to attend class or complete coursework. As a result, this caused me to fall even further behind in my studies, and it continued as a vicious cycle during most of my first year at Queen's. Additionally, my father had a stroke that caused paralysis in half of his body in early April of 2013, and I was thus further distressed and had an even harder time attempting to focus and study for exams. Despite being granted later exam dates by my instructors, I believe that this was also a contributing factor to performing poorly on my exams and resulted in low grades. I was able to pass most of my courses with low grades, but failed one half-year course and was subsequently placed on academic probation.

During my second year, I faced many of the same ongoing struggles as I had dealt with in my first year. I was determined to raise my grades and perform better, so I began to work on strategies to help myself learn more efficiently despite my new set-backs. I earned better grades in some classes, but continued to struggle in several of my more challenging courses. This trend continued into my third year; I performed even better in some courses, and I believe that I produced progressively better grades during the first semester of my fourth year as well.

Over the summer of 2015, I worked with my lawyers to reach a legal settlement with the insurance company of the driver who had hit me in 2012. As part of the evidence gathered, my lawyers had a psychologist perform a neuro-psych evaluation on me. The evaluation revealed that my mental processing abilities had been hindered since the accident, and that I was still suffering the consequences of post-concussion syndrome. It was also suggested that my numerical computing skills had been negatively affected. This evaluation was a great relief to me; it confirmed my suspicions and gave me the answers as to why I had struggled so much with my learning abilities since my concussion, especially with math. I felt as though the report had validated my hardships, while helping me to further understand my condition. The report also suggested that due to the post-concussion syndrome, it was likely that I would be more susceptible to depression and anxiety, which helped explain why I was experiencing (and continue to suffer from) mental health issues. Given this new information, I scheduled a meeting with an academic advisor at the ArtSci office in hopes of updating the faculty with my circumstances and seeing if there was anything that could be done to help me improve my academics.

At my meeting with the academic advisor, I explained my situation. The advisor directed me to Queen's Accessibility Services, where I presented the documentation of the neuro-psych evaluation and was granted academic accommodations. I personally believe that this support has helped me improve my grades over the past year and has made learning at Queen's much more accessible for me. I have already met with Accessibility Services again this semester, and have been granted the same accommodations for this upcoming academic year due to my post-concussion syndrome and mental health problems.

I would like to explain both why I am submitting this letter three months after I was granted permission to appeal, and why I would like to request to drop the courses that I was unable to complete from the winter of 2016 semester.

On January 22nd, I received the deeply upsetting information that a very close friend of mine from Nova Scotia passed away. The passing of my friend sent me back into a similar state as I had experienced in first year. I dealt with severe depression, sometimes unable to get out of bed or leave my house. I was unable to attend class or complete coursework, as I had little motivation to perform daily activities. I met with an academic advisor in the ArtSci office for advice, and they suggested that I seek help from a counsellor at Lasalle. I also kept my instructors updated with my condition, and I was able to submit incomplete forms for some of my classes so that I could complete the coursework over the summer.

With the help of a counsellor at Lasalle, I began to feel my mental health condition improving around the end of April. Given my improved mental state, I was confident that I would be able to finish my outstanding courses. However, one instructor denied me the opportunity to complete the coursework over the summer, and I automatically received a failing grade in that course. Therefore, I would like to request to drop this course from my transcript.

As for my remaining three courses, I continued to submit coursework over the duration of the summer. After a couple weeks of travelling early in May, I began working full time at the end of the month. I continued to improve my mental health during this time, somewhat returning to a feeling of normalcy. Unfortunately, in the beginning of July, a childhood friend of mine passed away due to cancer. This was another extremely difficult time for me, and I believe that, in combination with the pressure I was under due to work, completing coursework, and submitting my appeal, it triggered another perpetual depressive and anxious state. I was able to recognize that my mental health was beginning to deteriorate again, so I promptly booked an appointment with my doctor. I was advised to try an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication, but I wanted see a counsellor first, since I knew that it had helped immensely when I had seen someone at Lasalle earlier in the year. Unfortunately, my condition worsened over the course of the summer. My anxiety and depression progressed relentlessly until I had reached a state of mental and emotional instability. I experienced daily panic attacks, and had to take days off work to focus on my recovery. I continued to work with my doctor, who prescribed me a daily anti-depressant, which I've been taking for about three weeks now. I will return home for the Thanksgiving weekend to check in with my medical team and evaluate my progress. I have also scheduled another appointment with the counsellor that I was previously seeing at Lasalle, and I'm hopeful that this will also contribute to my ongoing recovery.

Today, I continue to employ strategies to work on my mental health. I've built a support system, I take my medication every day, and I'm working with doctors, counsellors, and other healthcare professionals to overcome my depression and anxiety. I'm also motivated to continue working with my instructors and Queen's Accessibility Services to develop strategies to overcome my post-concussion learning disabilities. I have already met with an academic advisor earlier this week to discuss an academic plan moving forward. Along with consultation from the academic advisor and my parents, I have decided that the most effective course of action would be to request a late drop for the remaining three courses that I was unable to complete this summer. This would provide me with a fresh start and a blank slate moving forward. Due to my poor grades in first and second year, I am currently enrolled in a General Geography degree plan. However, if this appeal were to be accepted, my GPA would be strong enough for me to transfer into the Honours Environmental Science program. I have already been taking the necessary required courses for Environmental Science, and I plan to continue taking a reduced course load to continue to work towards this honours degree. I have also taken several French studies courses, and if I were granted this appeal and accepted into the Honours Environmental Science program, I would have the option to consider working towards a minor in this subject as well. After discussion with my parents, I have additionally determined that I will return for an extra semester next fall to ensure that I don't overwhelm myself by taking too many courses at once and to allow myself to continue my recovery. My time at university has been an ongoing challenge, but I'm confident that I can persevere and overcome my struggles to earn a degree.

This letter has been overwhelmingly difficult to write. I find myself experiencing a mix of feelings while placing my deepest problems and struggles into words; frustration, anger, sadness, helplessness, vulnerability. But writing this letter has also been empowering. It's been therapeutic to document all of my hardships and grievances together in one place, since I believe that my current situation is an accumulation of the difficulties that I've been faced with over the past few years. I believe that continually working on overcoming these challenges has taught me many valuable lessons and made me stronger as an individual.

I would be extremely grateful and appreciative if I were granted permission to receive credit standing in several of the courses that I completed in first and second year, as well as drop four courses from the Winter 2016 semester due to my extenuating circumstances. I believe that this modification would allow my GPA to reflect the quality of work that I am capable of, as well as accurately depict my work ethic and determination.

Thank you so much for your time.

Sincerely,

Kara Lawrie