Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: About 3 weeks into the summer semester of 2018 my family received some very disheartening news. My aunt was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given 2 years to live. We immediately rallied around her, which for me meant traveling to Montreal to be with her and the rest of my family for two weeks. During those two weeks I became very distracted and overwhelmed with grief for my aunt. This caused my concentration on my summer courses to drop which meant assignments missed and general participation to dwindle. I needed more support from counselors or therapists than I was able to get in that moment since I was away from those resources. I was only able to focus on one of my two summer courses as a result of this. I had been emailing with the professor who knew of the situation with my aunt and he advised me not to take the final exam. Since I didn¿¿t take the exam, it made it impossible for me to pass the class.

This is the letter I had intended to submit back in the summer of 2018 but unfortunately was unable to. I got immediately caught up in school in the fall, which was my first semester back in Kingston after 2 years of medical leave. This transition was very difficult between moving back in, starting classes again and getting settled in Kingston. I went on medical leave due to mental health issues that were severely interfering with my academic abilities. Having been through treatment for these issues, my mental health has improved but is never going to be fully solved and leaves me sensitive to intense emotions. While I was trying to understand and deal with the emotions around my aunt¿¿s situation, I was also trying to be a support person for her two daughters and the rest of my family. With all of this going on, starting an appeal process slipped to the bottom of my list of things to do and eventually was pushed out of my mind. My academics are very important to me and I work hard to balance school work and life.