Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of Studies,

My name is Laila Ahmed and I have been a student at Queen¿¿s University since fall 2018. Throughout this time, I have faced serious challenges which have stood in the way of meeting my own goals and success as a student. I am writing this concerning my requirement to withdraw for a year due to failing to meet the minimum required GPA. I would like to appeal that my requirement to withdraw for a year be waived and that I be readmitted to Queen¿¿s University in the upcoming fall semester.

Throughout the last months, there were two major obstacles in my personal life that have significantly influenced my ability to achieve my goals with success. To begin with, my father had lost his job for a year. My family and I struggled with this, but it was not until towards the end of September of 2018 that my father found himself very financially unstable to the point where I was not sure if I could continue studying at the university. Eventually, our financial situation led to bigger problems and after a lot of stress and tension in my family, my parents were about to divorce. These events caused me a lot of stress, pressure, and anxiety. I was constantly worrying about what I would do if I had to drop out mid year due to our financial status, and about my family falling apart. Coping with my chronic stressful situation became very difficult, and affected my mental health terribly. Moving to Canada for university after being away from Canada for 14 years, I felt as if I was living alone in a foreign country. With my family across the world from me and not really having anyone near me to support me mentally and emotionally, I broke down. With my mental health getting worse, I started to not eat due to loss of appetite, not sleeping well, dreaded getting out and being productive, and overall I just felt depressed and hopeless as there was nothing I could do to fix the situation. This is a situation that I have never had to deal with in the past, and the conflicts between my parents was all a big shock to me. All this prompted my lacking in studies, and not performing well in class.

A few months ago, my father got a job which slowly settled down the circumstances we were dealing with. It has been 2 months since he got his job offer and we are now financially stable. Since our financial situation has been dealt with, the conflicts in my family have improved. With my father having a stable job and my parents¿¿ problems resolved, I firmly believe that my conditions are now allowing me to achieve my goals and that I am deserving to prove that I will complete my undergrad with dedication and success. I sincerely hope to be given the chance to accomplish my education here at Queen¿¿s.

Sincerely,

Laila Ahmed