Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am appealing a number of late drops and a couple of credit standings.
I would like Late Drops in:
- PHIL 329 (W2019)
- MATH 281 (W2019)
- STAT 269 (W2019)
- PHIL 250 (FW 2018/2019)
- PHIL 330 (F2018)
- MATH 221 (F2018)
- MATH 120 (FW 2017/2018)
- MATH 121 (S2017)
and Credit Standings in:
- PHIL 362 (F2018)
- STAT 268 (F2018)

I am making this appeal because during my first year of university I realized I had experienced a sexual assault. The summer before second year (June 2017) I made the hard decision to face this traumatic experience head on. I did this by reaching out to Barb Lotan and starting to see a counsellor at Student Wellness Services. While it is impossible to explain to you the horrific nature of this portion of my life, you can rest assured that it has been the hardest and most terrifying thing I have ever done. After a string of 6 weeks where I did not leave my apartment due to fear and anxiety, in spring 2018, my counsellor and a doctor referred me to therapy for more intensive help with my ongoing mental health concerns in relation to this traumatic event. Since Summer 2018, I have consistently been seeing both a therapist and counsellor at Student Wellness Services. You may wonder, then, why this past academic year (2018-2019) has gone particularly bad for my grades. This past year I started to participate in my life again: I started to become involved at Queen's, make friends, and push past the boundaries I imposed upon myself to stay safe. Unfortunately, doing so came with many risks for triggers to my mental health and it collided with a particularly rough sequence of my home life, where my mother had an acute episode of depression. It culminated in an embarrassingly poor year.

While my education ended in disaster, this phase of my life has led to mental stability and a solid reintegration into my communities. I am no longer afraid to leave my home, I have friends to vent to and friends with whom to study. I enjoy my classes and what I'm learning I am involved in things that add to my life and encourage me to do better and to be better on all fronts. I continue to actively participate in therapy and counselling. I feel supported in both my mental and physical health. Additionally, I have developed an academic plan to finish my undergraduate degree in 6 years (2022) by using a reduced course load and creating a mix of new courses and courses I must retake in order to maintain motivation and interest, and to achieve my degree.

My life has changed immensely in the preceding years. But it has enabled me to become very clear on one thing: my own personal goals. While I consider what has happened to me and my life to be the complete and utter destruction of it, I've come out of it with a very clear description of what I want - both in school and in my life. My education has always been and remains to be extremely important to me. Alas, it feels like it has been torn from me by this particularly horrible part of my life. Be it focus, energy or strength, I did not have it to contribute to my education. I am now capable of managing my life, my trauma, and my education. I want to correct the course of my education to the best of my abilities and to remain pro-active about its results.
Please help me to make things right in my life and my education by taking the time to thoughtfully consider this appeal.

Thank you,
Amelia Nicholas