Petition Letter
Dear Sirs and Madams,
My name is Alexander Singh, and I will be starting my second year at Queen¿¿s University this September. This letter is in regards to my academic performance since I began here at Queen¿¿s. The past few years, I have experienced academic struggles in high school that has now continued into university, and it has taken a serious toll on my mental, emotional, and even physical health. I have searched for many ¿cures¿¿ and forms of aid or treatment, but could not decipher what the real issues were.
Growing up in my household was an extremely stressful environment. My father was in a major motor-vehicle accident and suffered a severe brain injury. He had many violent outbursts that were very traumatic for my entire family. I had the support of my mom and two older sisters to help me with school related issues and tasks, but as I grew older I began to struggle but did not think much of it. Instead my family and I thought that working harder and studying more was the answer; this was a very short-lived solution. We began to reach out to many additional resources as possible, including a Hypnotist, Psychologist, and finally a Psychiatrist where I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and ADHD during this Summer 2015. Anxiety and Depression were a result of the high stress home environment, then I was diagnosed with ADHD in addition to these emotional symptoms.
My life has been a rollercoaster ride for many years with far more downs than ups. Without knowing that I suffered from anxiety, depression and ADHD, I began to believe my poor academic performance was going to be the norm. With a lot of hard work, extra tutoring and sacrifices, I was accepted into the Science program at Queen¿¿s University. But with this fact alone, it made it hard to believe that I could have any sort of disability.
I have found it very hard to keep up with the course material, and found myself always falling behind. Even today, my life feels like I¿¿ve been barely keeping up, just enough to get by. Schoolwork makes me feel extremely anxious and I become very stressed out. Preparing assignments and studying for tests are a struggle as well and because I am unable to focus or concentrate I have been unable to present or retain the information to complete these tasks. No matter how hard I tried it was a continuous struggle. It seems impossible to sit down and work on assignments or general studying. With this style of learning, my inability to concentrate and focus became even worse.
After my performance in first year, I found myself in a very tough and desperate position, a position that started to become routine. Whenever I found myself in this position, there was usually a huge risk involved, but with the ¿do or die¿¿ mentality I decided to follow through with my decisions regardless. Twice in the past, the risk worked out for the best; one example of this was when I had a very low grade of a ¿¿C¿ in the grade 12 course ¿Advanced Functions.¿¿ I decided to somehow try and improve my grade and researched some options, but the only way this was possible would be doing seven days of school a week for two months. My family thought I was crazy, but I figured balancing school and the Advanced Functions on the weekend was worth it, to be reviewed by top-tier schools. This risk paid off, but I took a calculated risk similar to that this summer that put me in an even worse position.
I completed Biology 102 in Fall 2014, and 103 in Winter 2015, but I did not have the grade in Bio 103 to be accepted into the Biology Major, nor the GPA of 1.9 between the two courses in order to take certain courses (i.e. Physiology 210). In Summer 2015 I obtained permission from the instructor and was able to take Phys 210 (hoping to switch into either Life Sciences or Biology Major), and tried to better my overall GPA and grade for Biology 103 by retaking the two courses online. I also attempted to redo Physics 118, as I had failed Phys 117¿¿s lecture material but passed the lab portion, and was somehow looking to still gain a credit as instructors had worked something out.
Now that you have heard my story, it is clear that I do have the ability to succeed here at Queen¿¿s University. I have worked extremely hard to get to this point and am determined to continue and complete my education at this University. I have struggled for many years but have now found the reasons why I have experienced these struggles. I would like to request for my Summer 2015 courses to be dropped. I believe that this is not a true reflection of my ability, and if given the chance I know I can succeed and fully enjoy my time at Queen¿¿s University.
Thank you very much, and I appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Alexander Singh
My name is Alexander Singh, and I will be starting my second year at Queen¿¿s University this September. This letter is in regards to my academic performance since I began here at Queen¿¿s. The past few years, I have experienced academic struggles in high school that has now continued into university, and it has taken a serious toll on my mental, emotional, and even physical health. I have searched for many ¿cures¿¿ and forms of aid or treatment, but could not decipher what the real issues were.
Growing up in my household was an extremely stressful environment. My father was in a major motor-vehicle accident and suffered a severe brain injury. He had many violent outbursts that were very traumatic for my entire family. I had the support of my mom and two older sisters to help me with school related issues and tasks, but as I grew older I began to struggle but did not think much of it. Instead my family and I thought that working harder and studying more was the answer; this was a very short-lived solution. We began to reach out to many additional resources as possible, including a Hypnotist, Psychologist, and finally a Psychiatrist where I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and ADHD during this Summer 2015. Anxiety and Depression were a result of the high stress home environment, then I was diagnosed with ADHD in addition to these emotional symptoms.
My life has been a rollercoaster ride for many years with far more downs than ups. Without knowing that I suffered from anxiety, depression and ADHD, I began to believe my poor academic performance was going to be the norm. With a lot of hard work, extra tutoring and sacrifices, I was accepted into the Science program at Queen¿¿s University. But with this fact alone, it made it hard to believe that I could have any sort of disability.
I have found it very hard to keep up with the course material, and found myself always falling behind. Even today, my life feels like I¿¿ve been barely keeping up, just enough to get by. Schoolwork makes me feel extremely anxious and I become very stressed out. Preparing assignments and studying for tests are a struggle as well and because I am unable to focus or concentrate I have been unable to present or retain the information to complete these tasks. No matter how hard I tried it was a continuous struggle. It seems impossible to sit down and work on assignments or general studying. With this style of learning, my inability to concentrate and focus became even worse.
After my performance in first year, I found myself in a very tough and desperate position, a position that started to become routine. Whenever I found myself in this position, there was usually a huge risk involved, but with the ¿do or die¿¿ mentality I decided to follow through with my decisions regardless. Twice in the past, the risk worked out for the best; one example of this was when I had a very low grade of a ¿¿C¿ in the grade 12 course ¿Advanced Functions.¿¿ I decided to somehow try and improve my grade and researched some options, but the only way this was possible would be doing seven days of school a week for two months. My family thought I was crazy, but I figured balancing school and the Advanced Functions on the weekend was worth it, to be reviewed by top-tier schools. This risk paid off, but I took a calculated risk similar to that this summer that put me in an even worse position.
I completed Biology 102 in Fall 2014, and 103 in Winter 2015, but I did not have the grade in Bio 103 to be accepted into the Biology Major, nor the GPA of 1.9 between the two courses in order to take certain courses (i.e. Physiology 210). In Summer 2015 I obtained permission from the instructor and was able to take Phys 210 (hoping to switch into either Life Sciences or Biology Major), and tried to better my overall GPA and grade for Biology 103 by retaking the two courses online. I also attempted to redo Physics 118, as I had failed Phys 117¿¿s lecture material but passed the lab portion, and was somehow looking to still gain a credit as instructors had worked something out.
Now that you have heard my story, it is clear that I do have the ability to succeed here at Queen¿¿s University. I have worked extremely hard to get to this point and am determined to continue and complete my education at this University. I have struggled for many years but have now found the reasons why I have experienced these struggles. I would like to request for my Summer 2015 courses to be dropped. I believe that this is not a true reflection of my ability, and if given the chance I know I can succeed and fully enjoy my time at Queen¿¿s University.
Thank you very much, and I appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Alexander Singh