Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean of Studies,
I am appealing two things. The first is the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for a minimum of one year. The second is to drop GEOL 106 (Winter, 2015), PHYS P16 (Winter, 2015), PHIL 115B (Winter, 2015), and ECON 110B (Winter, 2015). The significance of these 4 specific courses are that, together, they are all of the ones which I took during the 2015 Winter term.
The extenuating circumstance that directly negatively affected my academic performance during the 2015 Winter term was a psychological challenge. How both I and the professionals whos¿¿ help I sought (Dr. Maria De Las Angeles in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, a psychological counselor who specialized in patients around my age, and Dr. Tanya - I¿¿m unaware of her last name - at Queen¿¿s Counselling Services) characterized my specific psychological difficulties as a combination of depression and social anxiety. I want to stress that in no way were my struggles in the 2015 Winter term in any relation to drinking or drugs. Drugs were something I didn¿¿t use nor take in any form or way during either term, while drinking was something that was restricted to the 2015 Fall term, BEFORE the depression had set in.
I initially started the Winter term attending a good portion of my classes (occurring during the first 2-4 weeks), though out of the classroom I struggled immensely to do anything related to school. I completely stopped participating in pretty much every social aspect of life at Queen¿¿s after the 2nd week of the Winter term. From a month into the Winter term to the end of it, I almost never attended class and I certainly never submitted any out of class work. After I stopped going to class altogether, I felt more and more inclined to not interact socially. This was in part due to the fact that I didn¿¿t want anyone to ask me how I was because I didn¿¿t want anyone to figure out where I was psychologically as I was in denial at the time. It was also in part due to the downward spiral that the more classes and the more social gatherings that I missed and skipped, the more inclined and enticed I was to skip more because I was so far behind that at the time it seemed to me like I didn¿¿t have another option. There was a point at which I was in such denial of the realism and extend of my psychological state that I would lie and make up stories about every aspect of life. These lies would be fed to friends and family alike. I thought that at some point I would turn it around and figure it out, like I always had in the past when I fell behind in school or socially. The farthest development my social anxiety went to was to only have 1-2 meals a day. There were many reasons for this; firstly to try to keep my interactions with those I knew or whom knew me to zero if possible because I didn¿¿t want anything that would lead to inquiries about my psychological state, secondly because being around large numbers of others just made me experience anxiety-like symptoms, and thirdly because I was getting almost no sunlight or physical activity because I was just locked up in my room most of the time. I think that being on West campus during a particularly snowy and cold Winter attributed to this, especially coming from growing up in Middle Eastern climates (Saudi Arabia and Jordan) for 15 years.
There were times when I would ¿¿try¿ to alleviate my situation, like trying to fix my sleep pattern which was completely inconsistent and erratic in every way imaginable. The most notable ¿¿attempt¿ which I made (approximately 4-8 weeks before the end of the 2015 Winter term) was when I visited Queen¿¿s HCDS because I thought that there was no way I could reliably take Ritalin (ADD/ADHD self-regulating medication). I say ¿¿try¿ and ¿¿attempt¿ because in hindsight, taking or not taking Ritalin wasn¿¿t my issue, but at the time I was so mentally misconstrued that I thought it would help me get back on the right track.
Academically, currently my plan and intention is to repeat the first year requirements for the Economics major plan, and to make sure I regulate school work and attend all classes possible. Personally, I know that I have to have regular sleep patterns, proper eating patterns and diet and nutrition, to get regular exercise, and to regularly consult with a personal adviser. My academic plan will largely cover my future plan (specifically for next year) at Queen¿¿s, as they overlap in every area.
Sincerely,
Andrew Mancuso
I am appealing two things. The first is the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for a minimum of one year. The second is to drop GEOL 106 (Winter, 2015), PHYS P16 (Winter, 2015), PHIL 115B (Winter, 2015), and ECON 110B (Winter, 2015). The significance of these 4 specific courses are that, together, they are all of the ones which I took during the 2015 Winter term.
The extenuating circumstance that directly negatively affected my academic performance during the 2015 Winter term was a psychological challenge. How both I and the professionals whos¿¿ help I sought (Dr. Maria De Las Angeles in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, a psychological counselor who specialized in patients around my age, and Dr. Tanya - I¿¿m unaware of her last name - at Queen¿¿s Counselling Services) characterized my specific psychological difficulties as a combination of depression and social anxiety. I want to stress that in no way were my struggles in the 2015 Winter term in any relation to drinking or drugs. Drugs were something I didn¿¿t use nor take in any form or way during either term, while drinking was something that was restricted to the 2015 Fall term, BEFORE the depression had set in.
I initially started the Winter term attending a good portion of my classes (occurring during the first 2-4 weeks), though out of the classroom I struggled immensely to do anything related to school. I completely stopped participating in pretty much every social aspect of life at Queen¿¿s after the 2nd week of the Winter term. From a month into the Winter term to the end of it, I almost never attended class and I certainly never submitted any out of class work. After I stopped going to class altogether, I felt more and more inclined to not interact socially. This was in part due to the fact that I didn¿¿t want anyone to ask me how I was because I didn¿¿t want anyone to figure out where I was psychologically as I was in denial at the time. It was also in part due to the downward spiral that the more classes and the more social gatherings that I missed and skipped, the more inclined and enticed I was to skip more because I was so far behind that at the time it seemed to me like I didn¿¿t have another option. There was a point at which I was in such denial of the realism and extend of my psychological state that I would lie and make up stories about every aspect of life. These lies would be fed to friends and family alike. I thought that at some point I would turn it around and figure it out, like I always had in the past when I fell behind in school or socially. The farthest development my social anxiety went to was to only have 1-2 meals a day. There were many reasons for this; firstly to try to keep my interactions with those I knew or whom knew me to zero if possible because I didn¿¿t want anything that would lead to inquiries about my psychological state, secondly because being around large numbers of others just made me experience anxiety-like symptoms, and thirdly because I was getting almost no sunlight or physical activity because I was just locked up in my room most of the time. I think that being on West campus during a particularly snowy and cold Winter attributed to this, especially coming from growing up in Middle Eastern climates (Saudi Arabia and Jordan) for 15 years.
There were times when I would ¿¿try¿ to alleviate my situation, like trying to fix my sleep pattern which was completely inconsistent and erratic in every way imaginable. The most notable ¿¿attempt¿ which I made (approximately 4-8 weeks before the end of the 2015 Winter term) was when I visited Queen¿¿s HCDS because I thought that there was no way I could reliably take Ritalin (ADD/ADHD self-regulating medication). I say ¿¿try¿ and ¿¿attempt¿ because in hindsight, taking or not taking Ritalin wasn¿¿t my issue, but at the time I was so mentally misconstrued that I thought it would help me get back on the right track.
Academically, currently my plan and intention is to repeat the first year requirements for the Economics major plan, and to make sure I regulate school work and attend all classes possible. Personally, I know that I have to have regular sleep patterns, proper eating patterns and diet and nutrition, to get regular exercise, and to regularly consult with a personal adviser. My academic plan will largely cover my future plan (specifically for next year) at Queen¿¿s, as they overlap in every area.
Sincerely,
Andrew Mancuso