Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing for credit standing for ECON 110.

The reason I am appealing for credit standing for ECON 110 is due to circumstances I faced during my first year at Queen¿¿s. I struggled with mental illness throughout the course of last year and actively met with a therapist as a result. There were several points throughout the year at which I left school for the sake of my own safety. The mental illness that I experienced greatly affected my academic performance, particularly in ECON 110. Sometimes my social anxiety would reach levels that prohibited me from attending class. Furthermore, my bouts of depression led to me going home for periods of time where I would again, fall behind in course material. I found it particularly difficult to keep up after missing class due to the fact that I had no peers taking the course that I could turn to for support. This left me feeling very isolated and made it difficult for me to reach out for help.

The reason the mental illness I was experiencing particularly affected my academic performance in ECON 110 compared to my other courses is due to the fact that not knowing anyone in the course triggered my social anxiety. I had peers in all my courses in my first year except for ECON 110. My social anxiety created an obstacle in regard to both attending class as well as seeking help with catching up on missed class. One of my coping mechanisms in dealing with my anxiety was to turn to friends and peers for support in catching up and motivating me to leave my room and go to class. However, without having peers in this course, it was difficult for me to overcome my anxiety. I understand in hindsight that teaching assistants and the professor could have been resources for me to use to reach out for help, however my social anxiety caused this to be a daunting and seemingly impossible task.

The reason I am appealing for a credit standing now and not earlier is because the option to do so has only recently become known to me. Had I known about this earlier I would have applied closer to the date I took the course, however this was not the case.

Since this time in my academic career, I have since been in weekly therapy in order to overcome my struggles with mental illness, and am in a much better mental state than I was at the time of taking this course. My therapist and I have put lots of time and effort into developing strategies for me that allows me to avoid circumstances like this in the future.

I really hope you will consider granting me a credit standing for ECON 110, as I feel I have made significant progress since first year in regard to my mental health, and would like to have this outlier of a grade not affect my future academic endeavours. I can confidently say that I have tackled my social anxiety and depression in therapy, and I no longer believe that they will affect my academics as significantly in the future. I plan to continue seeing my therapist weekly to avoid issues like this to ever reach the severity that they once did last year.