Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: In November 2018, my brother passed away from suicide. I was not in Kingston for the remaining weeks of the fall semester. I returned for the winter semester so that I could complete my year and continue with my plan to graduate in April 2020. During the winter semester, I had six new courses on top of five of my fall semester courses that I still had to complete final assignments and exams for.
Schoolwork was difficult to complete, and took me a lot longer than normal. For most of the semester I was able to complete my work and when I couldn¿¿t the professors were understanding and worked with me so that I could complete the assignments. My grief comes in waves, so some days and weeks it is a lot harder than others to do schoolwork.
However, in March 2019 I began experiencing physical health problems that negatively impacted my ability to do schoolwork. I was (still am) in a lot of physical pain, I am also exhausted all of the time which leaves me with a small window of opportunity to complete my work. I have been seeing a doctor about these health problems, but since they did not know what exactly is wrong it has not been treated. At the end of the term, I am still grieving the loss of my brother and dealing with the stress of a lot of schoolwork.
I was unable to complete the essay for RELS 223, however, before the loss of my brother I completed 70 of the course. I am appealing to get aegrotat standing in the course so that I can focus on my other courses from winter semester. I have worked with my other professors plans so that I can finish my courses. However, for RELS 223 I have decided the best solution would be to get aegrotat standing in my course.
For RELS 227, professor Kelly and I had agreed upon a date in March. I missed the due date because of stress and grief. However, leading up to the due date and after that date, I have been unable to reach my professor via email. I do not know whether he is still teaching at Queen¿¿s. I am appealing to get an extension of my incomplete grade so that I may complete the outstanding assignments and get my credit. I am halfway through the essay and the other assignments that are outstanding, but I don¿¿t want to take the time away from my other courses to complete it if I will not be allowed to finish the course.
I did see a counsellor at one point in January but felt that it was still too fresh to begin working through. I talk to people in my life who are going through the same situation. The thing I have found with grief is that some days you are okay enough to get through daily life, to other people it may appear that nothing has even happened to me. However, this can change very quickly, I¿¿ve had it change in the matter of minutes; one minute I was productive and working on my schoolwork, and the next I had to stop for the rest of the day. When you lose someone, you are close with, especially to suicide, you don¿¿t know how you¿¿ll be. You also don¿¿t get to choose to ignore it and carry on with your life. I really hope to be able to graduate in April 2020 so that I can go on and enter the mental health field (something that I¿¿ve wanted to do even before losing my brother to suicide). By getting aegrotat standing in RELS 223 and an extension on my incomplete grade for RELS 227, I feel as though this will help me succeed with earning a degree from Queen¿¿s university.
Thank you for your time and consideration.