Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Youssef Taher. I am a first year going into second year, arts and science student. I planned on declaring computing as my major. I am writing this letter to appeal past the requirement to withdraw for one year appeal deadline. The reason I could not adhere to the June 14th deadline is that I had to travel with my family to Egypt for a family emergency. My grandmother was undergoing a series of operations and the whole family was in distraught. This family emergency came on top of my existing problems, that I would like to bring to your attention.

I entered school with every intention to graduate within four years. Unfortunately, starting my first year, I was not in the proper shape, both physically and mentally. I was hit with a severe bout of depression that continued to worsen exponentially throughout the end of my first semester. Around March of the second semester, my life took a complete turn in terms of structure, balance, and enjoyment. I started experiencing debilitating pain that could not be diagnosed by any of the doctors I have seen. I was prescribed medications to make the pain more mild and bearable, but non of them worked. The pain was so bad to the point that it disrupted my basic daily activities. I slept the days off, sleeping 18 hours a day for prolonged periods of time, taking a huge toll on my psyche. After two months of the ordeal, I started seeing a psychiatrist and we are working on various grounding techniques and coping strategies. I am also on a new medication that should hopefully take effect in the coming days from the time I am writing this letter.

Despite how distressing this dark time of my life was, I choose to see it as a learning opportunity. I believe I became much more introspective, for I had much more time to be with myself and my thoughts. I learned the most about myself than I ever did. I started to reflect on how valuable university is, for me and my future, even more than I ever thought. Watching my grades plummet and failing prerequisites hit me hard on how precious time is and how I should seize every moment to work on graduating.

In the end, I hope for your understanding and consideration regarding my appeal. I have attached documentation of my condition in further details, should you choose to review. My deepest appreciation for taking the time to go through my request.


Sincerely,

Youssef