Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Concerning Parties,

COMPASSIONATE APPEAL TO LATE DROP PPEC 200 AND PHIL 459

Academic Term 2019-2020 ?? Extenuating Circumstances Document

I have already graduated with a BA Degree. In order to get my Honours degree in Philosophy, I require approx 15 more units (I have already completed 6.0 of these units through The University of Western Ontario and will be submitting a letter of permission to have this added to my transcript as 'Transfer Credits??).

update specifics

This is a letter outlining the circumstances that affected my academic performance during the 2019-2020 academic term, a term for which I am requesting compassion for extenuating circumstances.

My close-knit extended family and I immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan. Throughout my university career, my father, located in Milton ON, has suffered from Crohn??s Disease and severe depression. This has resulted in his being unable to work. My mother is his primary caretaker. As a result, I have worked three jobs on top of my university studies to help support my parents and my studies. In my final semester, my dad received a biological agent as a form of treatment. His body did not take well to it ?? this treatment was required multiple times to help his Crohn??s and left him paralyzed for a few months. The cost of one treatment was 30,000. I had to leave school, and could not attend lectures, to support my father, to take care of him and help him with day-to-day tasks. In November 2019, both my aunt and my grandfather were diagnosed with cancer, and my mom was unable to provide the same level of care for my dad, which is why I had to leave Kingston to care for my father. My aunt ended up passing away in June 2020 and my grandfather passed away in July 2020. My academic performance suffered due to the amount of time I spent away from Kingston in 2019 to physically be present to help my father in Milton, ON. I was diagnosed with depression; my student wellness services health records can prove this fact as I was prescribed SSRIs.

Moreover, I have worked as an Army Reservist with the Princess of Wales?? Own Regiment since 2016. I have had to respond to several domestic operations which also marred my availability for my studies. For example, I was unable to complete the required course work for the 2019 summer term because I was deployed on Operation Lentus in support of the flood emergency in Ottawa, aiding Canadians during a time of crisis.

I graduated university with a General BA. I have F??s on my transcript that I would like to appeal as these F??s reflect neither my abilities, nor my learning outcomes in those classes; they reflect nothing other than my complete unavailability for those classes, which unavailability was unpredictable at the time. I simply could not take the courses for which I had signed up and was too frazzled at the time to drop out of them. I was struggling to find a will to live and trying my best to support my family.

Despite my situation, I am a good student. I love learning and take tremendous pride in holding a Queen??s degree. In an effort to repair my transcript, I have re-taken PHIL 203, Science and Society. I attained an A+ after repeating this class. I generally have A??s in my preferred areas, eg. in practical ethics and moral philosophy.

I have already graduated with a BA Degree. To get my Honours degree in Philosophy, I require 15 more units (I have already completed 6.0 of these units through The University of Western Ontario and will be submitting a letter of permission to have this added to my transcript.
My intent is to upgrade my degree to a BAH, with the goal of pursuing an MA in Social Work at Lakehead or Dalhousie. I am also considering writing the LSAT, with the goal of going to law school.

I now have two more courses that fall within the extenuating term, that were greatly impacted by the extenuating circumstances:
PHIL 459 Philosophy of Language, and
PPEC 200 Introduction to Pols, Phil and Econ.

I have attached emails to this document proving correspondence between my Queen??s social worker, Tess Grant, and professors during this time, asking for extensions due to these circumstances. I am unsure of what type of documentation to provide regarding my father??s illness. Due to the several health impacts these situations had on my wellbeing, I was unable to make time to even consider what an appeal process would entail. Now that I am working full time, have grieved the deaths of my aunt and grandfather, and my father??s health is more stabilized, I have a bit of leisure to work on repairing my grades.

All I am requesting is a retroactive drop of courses that circumstances prevented me from seriously attending, so I can sign up for new courses now that my circumstances have settled and that I have the true availability to actually take them.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter,


Leeza Yosofzai