Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 7684
Submitted: May 12, 2021 at 10:53:11 AM
First Name: Megan
Last Name: Siokalo
Student Number: 20212722
Email: megan.siokalo@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAS
Plan: HLTH
Level of Study: 1
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Code: PSYC 100
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2021
Petition Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor's Name: Meghan Norris
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,
Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal for a CR credit today. To begin with the obvious, due to the global pandemic, this year had already been hard enough, both students, as well as faculty, struggled to adapt to a brand new way of learning, as a first-year student already apprehensive about beginning her university journey, this was definitely had a deep effect on me. I thrive in an in-person setting as most people do, it gets me out of bed and I thoroughly enjoy real-life interactions, something we were all deprived of this year. However, these circumstances while troubling were something every student dealt with.
On top of a year that had already been set up for struggle, I came into this school year still dealing with many personal things. In my grade 12 year I was sexually assaulted by my math teacher, a trusted authority figure. This event caused deep trauma that I still to this day am working on and led me to develop a very aggressive eating disorder. I started my year at Queen's trying to work through these things and struggling. However, during my attempts to cope I was interrupted by further trauma. In late September 2020, I was raped by my now ex-boyfriend. He knew about the previous sexual assault as well as my eating disorder, and yet still did this to me. I spent much of the school year after this event attempting to cope with all of the things that have happened to me in a matter of months.
I found that specifically PSYC 100 was a difficult course for me to manage in my situation, it was a difficult course and of no fault of anyone but my own, the material was often triggering many of my issues. I enjoyed the course and was fascinated by the material however, every once and a while there would be a term or a concept that would trigger my memories of these events and send me into a depressive episode. I started putting fewer hours into this class as I tried to just get the assignments done and move on. I would often not read the assigned readings if I caught myself being triggered by content. I was not able to get a strong understanding of the material but I did not want to reach out for help as I felt that this was my own fault.
Towards the end of the year, I moved back home due to a COVID-19 outbreak on campus as I thought it would be safer for me. I was spending more time with different friends and one evening we found ourselves discussing my friend's sexual assault she had endured. Hearing her explain the situation triggered me and brought back all of the thoughts I had been trying to forget, I spent the last two months of the semester dwelling on whether or not I would see my attackers now that I was back home. This caused me to stray from focusing on my studies, I did not put in the hours into studying for this course's final exam as I found it too much and I could not bear to look at the course readings.
I know that the behaviours that lead to me being unhappy with my grade were of my own fault however, I endured things this year that no human should ever have to go through and I feel that because of these extenuating circumstances that I was not able to show my full potential in this course. After graduating from Queen's I plan on attending medical school. I would like this mark to be removed from my transcript as I believe it is not reflective of me as a student and does not show what I can truly do. My grade was a spawn of unpredicted and horrific circumstances and for this reason, I would like to appeal to have this grade removed from my GPA.
Thank you again for taking the time to review my appeal, I appreciate this opportunity to explain my story and reconcile this situation.
Sincerely,
Megan Siokalo
Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal for a CR credit today. To begin with the obvious, due to the global pandemic, this year had already been hard enough, both students, as well as faculty, struggled to adapt to a brand new way of learning, as a first-year student already apprehensive about beginning her university journey, this was definitely had a deep effect on me. I thrive in an in-person setting as most people do, it gets me out of bed and I thoroughly enjoy real-life interactions, something we were all deprived of this year. However, these circumstances while troubling were something every student dealt with.
On top of a year that had already been set up for struggle, I came into this school year still dealing with many personal things. In my grade 12 year I was sexually assaulted by my math teacher, a trusted authority figure. This event caused deep trauma that I still to this day am working on and led me to develop a very aggressive eating disorder. I started my year at Queen's trying to work through these things and struggling. However, during my attempts to cope I was interrupted by further trauma. In late September 2020, I was raped by my now ex-boyfriend. He knew about the previous sexual assault as well as my eating disorder, and yet still did this to me. I spent much of the school year after this event attempting to cope with all of the things that have happened to me in a matter of months.
I found that specifically PSYC 100 was a difficult course for me to manage in my situation, it was a difficult course and of no fault of anyone but my own, the material was often triggering many of my issues. I enjoyed the course and was fascinated by the material however, every once and a while there would be a term or a concept that would trigger my memories of these events and send me into a depressive episode. I started putting fewer hours into this class as I tried to just get the assignments done and move on. I would often not read the assigned readings if I caught myself being triggered by content. I was not able to get a strong understanding of the material but I did not want to reach out for help as I felt that this was my own fault.
Towards the end of the year, I moved back home due to a COVID-19 outbreak on campus as I thought it would be safer for me. I was spending more time with different friends and one evening we found ourselves discussing my friend's sexual assault she had endured. Hearing her explain the situation triggered me and brought back all of the thoughts I had been trying to forget, I spent the last two months of the semester dwelling on whether or not I would see my attackers now that I was back home. This caused me to stray from focusing on my studies, I did not put in the hours into studying for this course's final exam as I found it too much and I could not bear to look at the course readings.
I know that the behaviours that lead to me being unhappy with my grade were of my own fault however, I endured things this year that no human should ever have to go through and I feel that because of these extenuating circumstances that I was not able to show my full potential in this course. After graduating from Queen's I plan on attending medical school. I would like this mark to be removed from my transcript as I believe it is not reflective of me as a student and does not show what I can truly do. My grade was a spawn of unpredicted and horrific circumstances and for this reason, I would like to appeal to have this grade removed from my GPA.
Thank you again for taking the time to review my appeal, I appreciate this opportunity to explain my story and reconcile this situation.
Sincerely,
Megan Siokalo