Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I, Muhammed Jallow(10177023), am a second year biology major writing to you in order to make an appeal for one of my fall courses. Specifically, I am appealing to drop CHEM 281 (Fall, 2016). I feel that my performance in that class this semester was not a good representation of my ability to succeed, and due to external circumstances, my grade was effected. I hope that you will gladly consider granting me a chance of dropping the course so I could re take it in the future in order to show my true ability.

For the past two years, I have been dealing with certain mental troubles that I feel have impacted my ability to succeed in University, as well as I did in high school. For that, there have been a lot of things in my personal life that have been affected, including my performances in classes. My first year, my mental struggles weren¿¿t as bad but they still hindered my performances in class as my struggles prevented me from wanting to take full advantage of the amazing learning opportunities that Queens had given me. Furthermore, I was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it, so I never got help for it, but at the same time I always thought that I would get better by the end of the year. Going into the summer, there were certain events that took place, and further put me in a darker spot. There were also issues at home that I was dealing with, which made everything a lot harder to cope with. Towards the end of the summer things did slightly get better at home, but I was still mentally fragile due to events that I experienced. Starting second year, I still felt that I was unable to be myself due to the mental struggles I was experiencing and it really started to show in some of my results for other courses as well. However, chemistry being one of my hardest courses added on to my mental struggle as I convinced myself I would never be able to succeed and that impacted how I did on my second midterm and final exam. During this semester, I never really tried to deal with it as I always tried to find different things to distract me. However, towards the end of the semester, after finally confiding in a friend, I started seeking more professional help in order to better my mental state. I¿¿ve been improving a lot more, as well as talking to a family member has greatly improved my mental state.

I know that if given another chance, I will be able to succeed at the chemistry 281 course. I understand it is one of the more challenging courses that Queen¿¿s offers but I honestly feel the struggles I was experiencing greatly hindered how well I did. I know that I may still experience problems, but I will be better equipped at handling it as I understand there are a multitude of services at Queens that aid people in my situations to succeed. I have also come up with a study plan in order to ensure my improvement in my other courses next semester, and to not let what I¿¿m going through affect my performances.