Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 9195
Submitted: May 19, 2022 at 10:06:06 PM
First Name: Alex
Last Name: Nygren
Student Number: 20099001
Email: alexcnygren@gmail.com
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: POLS
Level of Study: 4
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: ASTR 101
Term: Fall
Year: 2021
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Alex Nygren
20099001
Academic Appeal: ASTR101
Dear Dr. Atkinson,
I am writing to you to formally submit an academic appeal to request the removal of Astronomy 101 from my transcript. I am an upper-year Political Science student and took this course in the fall semester of 2021.
I am submitting an appeal request to drop this course as the final grade that I received in the course was drastically impacted by an unforeseen extenuating circumstance in my personal life that resulted in my failure of the final examination. Through the duration of course I maintained around a B+ grade and was prepared to perform to my standard ability on the final examination prior to what happened in my personal life.
I am not entirely comfortable writing in great detail about the situation, but I will do my best to paint the clearest picture. In the latter half of first semester this past academic year, I began to experience severe difficulties with my mental health due to a personal circumstance that arose at the start of the school year. Outside of my academic work, this completely took my life over, eventually to the point of impacting my studies. Through Queen's Mental Services I was able to be connected with a counsellor to help support me with this. The troubles that I was dealing with increased as the semester was nearing a close and began to really take a toll on my studies. I was finding it extremely difficult to allocate enough time to all of my courses while dealing with this ongoing issue, specifically ASTR101. As this course was my one elective that I was taking this semester, it quickly become the lowest of my academic priorities. Up until final exams came around, I thought I would be able to manage enough to get by. I was quite wrong, my mental health continued to get worse as I dealt with the matter. My ASTR101 exam was scheduled to be taken in person on December 18th, and then moved to an online format amidst the COVID outbreak. I was unlucky and impacted by the COVID outbreak, so my exam was deferred to the New Year. Yet, in a way I was relieved because I thought that this would potentially provide me with the time to get away from the issues I was dealing with outside of school. However, by the time I was able to take my exam in January of 2022, my personal problems did not subside and were very much becoming worse. With the start of five new courses for the winter semester as well, I was not nearly as prepared as I would have been had I been in a healthy mental and physical state at the time of my examination. I tried to do the best that I could manage on the exam but did not perform as well as I could have. I ended up receiving a grade of just 40.8% on the exam. With my existing grade in the course, normally I would have still been able to pass the course despite my failure of the final exam, but this course required a 50% score on the exam to pass the course. Had I have been able to take the examination under normal conditions, I am absolutely certain that my grade would be dramatically different and accurately reflect my academic abilities.
As this semester has come to an end, fortunately I see light on the horizon in moving away from my personal matter. I have been seeing a counsellor on a weekly basis which is helping me get better. With this in mind, I am hopeful to finish this semester in a stronger standing than I did last semester and return to Queen's next fall with a healthy path forward. Should this appeal to have ASTR101 removed from my transcript be granted, I will fill the missing credit by taking a course this summer or adding an additional course next fall.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter and consider my request. As previously mentioned, if you would like to speak in further detail about this matter, I would be comfortable to do so in person or over Zoom. Attached to this appeal is a letter of confirmation from my counsellor, Nikki Venere Brenner.
I would also like to apologize for the immense delay in submitting this appeal. I first engaged with my Academic Advisor in April regarding this matter, as I was not aware at the time this was a viable path.
Sincerely,
Alex Nygren
647-740-8200
17acn2@queensu.ca
20099001
Academic Appeal: ASTR101
Dear Dr. Atkinson,
I am writing to you to formally submit an academic appeal to request the removal of Astronomy 101 from my transcript. I am an upper-year Political Science student and took this course in the fall semester of 2021.
I am submitting an appeal request to drop this course as the final grade that I received in the course was drastically impacted by an unforeseen extenuating circumstance in my personal life that resulted in my failure of the final examination. Through the duration of course I maintained around a B+ grade and was prepared to perform to my standard ability on the final examination prior to what happened in my personal life.
I am not entirely comfortable writing in great detail about the situation, but I will do my best to paint the clearest picture. In the latter half of first semester this past academic year, I began to experience severe difficulties with my mental health due to a personal circumstance that arose at the start of the school year. Outside of my academic work, this completely took my life over, eventually to the point of impacting my studies. Through Queen's Mental Services I was able to be connected with a counsellor to help support me with this. The troubles that I was dealing with increased as the semester was nearing a close and began to really take a toll on my studies. I was finding it extremely difficult to allocate enough time to all of my courses while dealing with this ongoing issue, specifically ASTR101. As this course was my one elective that I was taking this semester, it quickly become the lowest of my academic priorities. Up until final exams came around, I thought I would be able to manage enough to get by. I was quite wrong, my mental health continued to get worse as I dealt with the matter. My ASTR101 exam was scheduled to be taken in person on December 18th, and then moved to an online format amidst the COVID outbreak. I was unlucky and impacted by the COVID outbreak, so my exam was deferred to the New Year. Yet, in a way I was relieved because I thought that this would potentially provide me with the time to get away from the issues I was dealing with outside of school. However, by the time I was able to take my exam in January of 2022, my personal problems did not subside and were very much becoming worse. With the start of five new courses for the winter semester as well, I was not nearly as prepared as I would have been had I been in a healthy mental and physical state at the time of my examination. I tried to do the best that I could manage on the exam but did not perform as well as I could have. I ended up receiving a grade of just 40.8% on the exam. With my existing grade in the course, normally I would have still been able to pass the course despite my failure of the final exam, but this course required a 50% score on the exam to pass the course. Had I have been able to take the examination under normal conditions, I am absolutely certain that my grade would be dramatically different and accurately reflect my academic abilities.
As this semester has come to an end, fortunately I see light on the horizon in moving away from my personal matter. I have been seeing a counsellor on a weekly basis which is helping me get better. With this in mind, I am hopeful to finish this semester in a stronger standing than I did last semester and return to Queen's next fall with a healthy path forward. Should this appeal to have ASTR101 removed from my transcript be granted, I will fill the missing credit by taking a course this summer or adding an additional course next fall.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter and consider my request. As previously mentioned, if you would like to speak in further detail about this matter, I would be comfortable to do so in person or over Zoom. Attached to this appeal is a letter of confirmation from my counsellor, Nikki Venere Brenner.
I would also like to apologize for the immense delay in submitting this appeal. I first engaged with my Academic Advisor in April regarding this matter, as I was not aware at the time this was a viable path.
Sincerely,
Alex Nygren
647-740-8200
17acn2@queensu.ca
Documentation
Professional Letter: NVB Letter.pdf
Document: 20099001 letter.pdf