Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it may concern,
My name is Kristin Soderholm, and I just finished my second year at Queen¿¿s this spring.
My problems effectively studying began in February. February was when I lost my support system due to Covid. I¿¿m an international student, and two years ago I made the decision to move to Canada for university without knowing anyone. So the people that I met in Canada became my support system while at school. In February, these people were gone. As the semester went on, lock-downs made it almost impossible to associate with almost anyone whatsoever, and the isolation made me increasingly anxious and distraught, and my powers to focus and study were seriously impacted. There was no one for me to go see, and no where to go. This extreme isolation was overwhelming.
It took weeks to realize what had happened and how much this truly affected me. My motivation was gone and my usual passion for learning and life were lost. My ability to focus on
my classes was dramatically curtailed. Eventually, my psychotherapist made the preliminary
diagnosis of Stress Response Syndrome/Adjustment Disorder (SRS/AD) and recommended me
to get an official diagnosis from a doctor. I then called Student Wellness, however, the earliest
appointment I could get was April 27th, which was unfortunately after my finals. I tried multiple times to get an earlier appointment, with no luck. During that appointment, I was officially diagnosed with SRS/AD by Student Wellness Services.
Stress Response Syndrome is a short-term (3-6 months) mental health condition that happens when someone has great difficulty managing or adjusting to a particular source of stress, which in my case was the extreme isolation due to Covid. Symptoms can affect someone¿¿s ability to function, including working and studying, as in my case. While I was waiting for my official diagnosis I did apply for academic considerations, but the considerations offered were not helpful to my stress related impairment. Since I couldn¿¿t get an appointment to be officially diagnosed before finals, I could not apply for academic accommodations. My psychotherapist and I decided that taking my finals as usual was the only course of action, even though I was unable to function and study as well as I normally could. I tried my best to study and prepare at the normal level I would have liked to, but unfortunately, I just wasn¿¿t able to, and due to this, I did not do as well as I normally could have on my finals. As I¿¿m hoping to attend graduate school after undergraduate, grades like this could drastically impact my ability to be accepted. I¿¿m hoping credit standing would allow me to still get the credit for taking the classes, without negatively affecting my GPA. By reducing the overall stress of my situation and my final grades, I will be able to work with my psychotherapist to fully recover.
I am applying for credit standing to only three out of my four classes because my Introduction to Marketing class did not have a final while the rest of the course had finals, and my inability to effectively study for such was the critical problem in these courses.
I appreciate your consideration, and I look forward to hearing back from you.