Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Thursday, April 16, 2015

Dear Associate Dean of Studies,

I am appealing to waive the 21-day appeal deadline for dropping grades from my transcript.

Beginning in January 2013, in the middle of my second year at Queen's, my anxiety and Attention Deficit Disorder began to affect my studies. I had a great deal of trouble focusing on tasks, as I would get easily distracted and off-topic. ADD runs in my family, with my mother, brother, aunt, and grandfather. I have always known that I have slight ADD but it wasn't until my second year in my studies at Queen's that it really started to impact my life. I found myself losing focus on daily tasks and especially in my schoolwork. It was particularly frustrating to see how I was falling behind compared to my classmates; what took the average person 1 hour to read would take me 2 or 3 times as long because I could not stay focused. Dealing with this became frustrating and therefore caused me to experience anxiety because I would stress about meeting deadlines and performing well in my classes. I became increasingly anxious with assignments and found it hard to manage my time equally between all my courses. When I began missing deadlines, I would shut down to avoid the stress, which perpetuated the problem. I found that my ADD and anxiety affected me most with large assignments that required focusing for long periods of time. The effects of ADD and anxiety particularly occurred from January 2013 until August 2014. Therefore, some of my heavily assignment-based courses in this time period were affected. With the desire to do well and not disappoint my peers and family, I internalized these problems for a long time. It was not until I began to talk to people about the issues I was having that I was better able to target the problem and find a solution. Though I did not seek medical attention, I received a lot of support from my family members who create a great support system.

Starting off fourth year, I came back to school with goals for improvement. I started attending the Learning Strategies workshops in the Queen's Learning Commons to improve my study skills; particularly time management and coping with academic stress. Consulting my academic advisor has helped tremendously to keep me on track with my studies and my academic plan. I now treat school as a full-time job, so that I maintain a regular routine. Having a routine and going to the library everyday has helped me re-gain focus and not lose sight of my goals. This year, and this semester particularly, I have been striving to succeed with the goal of graduating in the spring. In talking with my academic advisor, I decided it was best to wait until classes were over to take the time to write this appeal letter, so that I could stay focused on my studies.

Sincerely,

Virginia Jackson