Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear the Associate Deans,

My name is Viola (Shu) Tian, and I am about to enter my final year at queens with a medial program in PSYC and DEVS. Due to extenuating circumstances, I have decided to take this semester at Korea University in South Korea. These reasons are beyond my control and I will address them in this appeal letter in the following.

I am an international student who has been studying at Queens for three years, and during these times, I have had a lot of disappointing experiences with the locals due to racial and cultural differences. I was born and raised in China, and when I first got to Queens, as you can imagine, I was a bit shy, timid, and unconfident about my spoken English. The amount of stress that I have been through as an ¿¿outsider¿ crashed me as I could not fit into any groups other than the international one. I felt really lost for most of the times and event regretted coming to Queens at one point. The lowest point of my life was when I had depressive episodes. I tried to ask for help from the counselling center on campus, but it was not helpful. Not until two years in, did this situation change as I met more good friends. Now that I think about it, I think I just really wanted to connect with other people who share the same experience, cultural background, and most importantly, who are open-minded to welcome Asian culture. The reason why I brought this up is that I think Queens is arguably lacking in this aspect. People at Queens are proud of traditions and legacies and that creates a sense of belonging and cohesion. At the same time; however, it makes international students hard to feel included. When I was at Queens, I did not know where to place my cultural pride, and I was constantly torn between feeling proud and feeling discouraged of where I come from. Hopefully through this journey, I would reconnect with my cultural roots by diving deeper into the East Asian studies. I want to come back refreshed and happy, with a better understanding of why I should be proud of my culture and regain my confidence. I want to use my personal experience as an example to offer a fairer presentation of the Asian community and thereby contribute to a more harmonious environment at Queens.

Besides that, I also have family issues that really concern me. My mother was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a few years ago, and it almost crashed her on top of her issue with my father. Even though she already went through her surgery, she is still in the process of recovering, and she is doing this process alone. She lives by herself in Seoul, Korea, and she sometimes still experiences depression as a side symptom of her cancer. We have been living apart for the past three years and it hurts me to think that I cannot stay right beside her when she really needs support from her family. I only get to visit her once a year during the summer, for the winter holiday is too short for such a long trip back and forth. As we spend less and less time, I feel that we are growing even further apart emotionally. Last summer, when I went back to China, we got into countless fights, because we both held grudges against each other for not being caring enough when one needed the other. When I was dealing with transitions into university or even later struggling with the Queen¿¿s environment, she was troubled by her illness and declined health. We were so preoccupied with our own issues that we forgot to express love and by the time we were reunited, we already forgot how. Another reason that we always have conflicts is because our differences in values. I was educated in a more liberal, western environment, whereas my mom was brought up in a traditional, Eastern system. Our emphasis on values has diverged from each other, and this also deeply affected our mother-daughter relationship. Therefore, I think I really need this chance to learn to be a better daughter and to bond with her. Otherwise, I might regret for the rest of my life for being too neglecting of my family.