Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Jenn Stephenson, Associate Dean (Academic)

Queen¿¿s University Academic Appeal Office

I am appealing to drop BCHM 218 (Summer 2020) as a result of extenuating circumstances beyond my control. In the summer, I took two courses, COGS 100 and BCHM 218. I got an A in COGS 100 but I failed BCHM 218, because COGS 100 was only a 6 week course. Just after my COGS 100 exam, around the time of the BCHM midterm (mid-June), my dad moved out due to mental health reasons. Since then, my mom has full custody of me and my 5 younger siblings. However, she had to start working full-time to financially support us. Also, since she is a nurse, due to COVID-19 her clinic needed her to work more hours. This left me, as the eldest, to do a lot of childcare and housework. As previously mentioned, I have 5 younger siblings, the youngest being 5 years old. This situation made me very stressed and unable to concentrate on BCHM 218, as I was also working full-time as a lifeguard to pay for the upcoming year of university. I have struggled with mental health issues in the past such as anxiety and OCD, and unfortunately this experience brought a lot of symptoms back that I had previously gotten over. Anytime I tried to do work for the course, I could not focus as I couldn¿¿t stop worrying about other things and got overwhelmed at the thought of even completing small academic tasks. I did not drop the course at the week 8 deadline because I had been doing well in the course up until the midterm, which took place around week 7 or 8, so I did not think that dropping would be necessary. However, I continued to struggle with my mental health throughout the rest of the summer until I finally decided to see a counsellor through Queen¿¿s Student Wellness Services in early September. I have been meeting with her regularly since then, and consequently my mental health has improved. I also moved to Kingston in September, which helped my circumstance as I no longer had to take care of my siblings. Moving forward, I most likely will not take any summer courses if I am going to be living at home with my family, and I will continue to see my counsellor as needed.

Thank you for your consideration,

Talia Ponesse