Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello, my name is Geoffrey Mayotte. I failed two of my five full year courses and narrowly passed my other three. I had what I like to think are fairly extreme extenuating circumstances resulting in a GPA less than 0.7 which in turns means I am forced to withdraw for a year. I didn't make the right effort to reach out for help when I clearly was in need of it. I first semester things were going pretty well for me, I was struggling as most people do with the transition but that was fine. Just before exams came I had to get surgery to have my gull bladder removed (last week of November). This left me off campus for a week. Followed by being bed ridden for 6 weeks following. These 6 weeks were right in the middle of exams. I was unable to study, eat, workout, hand anything in. I ended up performing terribly on my exams and I was in a pretty bad spot going into second semester.
In late January of second semester my best friend from home passed away. It was extremely sudden and devastating... This was my first experience with death and it being while I was an 18 year old kid and with my best friend made it very tough. Again I had to leave campus for a week to be with friends and for the whole process. By the time I was back things were not really okay. I was extremely depressed, having not talked to anyone about it. I stopped eating, sleeping, and lost all motivation to work. In my week gone I missed a major economics assignment, I was unable to do any physics work, I was unable to study for a linear algebra exam, unable to prepare for a philosophy essay, and unable to hand in my calculus work. All were very important and in missing that week I missed all of it. In my downwards spiral after that I lost essentially all motivation to work or do well. I had still not talked to anyone about my issues and I was honestly only making myself worse. Just before exams for second semester were about to begin I had a complete breakdown about everything. I ended up going to the emergency room for medical help because I was unable to cope or do anything I needed to. Having not slept for weeks after seeking this help I crashed hard. My studying for exams was again extremely sub par due to lack of sleep and mental health. At that point in the year I had recognized that something was clearly wrong and my mental safety took priority over my academics. I take full responsibility for not reaching out for help when I was in need. I didn't tell any of my instructors any of this. I reached out to my calculus professor after the year was over and he was the one who drove me to appeal everything. He told me how surprised he was with my grades because I always seemed like a well driven student. But I guess that was the issue. I was bombarded with so many things and kept everything to myself to the point where it drove me mad. By the end of everything I was in contact with a health care professional and was in the midst of creating a strong support system but by that point it was already too late to salvage my year.