Petition Letter
Dear Dr. Bénard,
I am appealing to drop two fall electives, ECON112 (Fall 2015) and BIOL110 (Fall 2015), as well a full year course (also an elective), SOCY122 (Fall 2015 and Winter 2016). Because I am enrolled in the School of Nursing, they only allow failure in one course before asking the student to withdraw from the program. As I already have one failure on my transcript and I don't believe I will be successful in any of the above courses, I would like to drop all three of them.
The reason behind these circumstances is a psychological challenge. I have suffered depression and anxiety for years, both conditions worsening once I came to Queens' and converted to the life of a university student. They have affected my grades in university in the past (undocumented), but it was only this summer I was finally able to start getting treatment for these illnesses. I started with HCDS in the summer, right after exams in April I had my first appointment. My hope was to get some improvement before the Fall term started, but unfortunately neither illness was responsive to treatment and so in October I was referred to a psychiatrist outside of Queens' to get additional treatment. My doctors and I are going through some trial and error to find a medical regime that works for me, and are finally having some success. I know I will need a letter from a professional to support this appeal and so I will submit a letter from my psychiatrist as soon as they have it ready.
This semester I struggled academically because of both my anxiety and depression. The depression made me have very low energy, very low moods/suicidal ideations, and also made it extremely difficult to focus. This made it impossible to get through readings and I quickly fell behind. Early on I submitted a few assignments, one for BIOL110 (a one page essay on plagiarism) and a one in ECON112 (a friend is also taking this class which made me work at it so she wouldn't realise how much I was struggling). I ran out of steam by the third week of classes and couldn't catch up. I couldn't ask for help from my professors because my anxiety told me that I wouldn't be believed, that I wasn't really sick, that it was embarrassing that I couldn't manage something as simple as class work, and that none of my professors would be understanding or willing to make accommodations. I do have a job that I need to pay for school and living expenses, and because of my low energy on days that I worked I would wake up early to go and fall into bed as soon as I got home, leaving no energy for my studies. Because of this cycle of low energy/difficulty focusing and anxiety over my failure, I fell further and further behind. I started feeling a bit better in recent weeks (early/mid-November), but by now I have missed so many assignments and quizzes and am so behind in readings that I feel hopeless and I don't believe I will be successful in any of these courses. I love nursing and I'm scared that if I am forced to finish these courses I will be removed from the program.
For the future, my doctors and I have found a medical regime that seems to be working, and I've experienced improvements in both conditions. While I'm still not at 100, I feel like I'm on my way there and can begin shouldering my academic responsibilities once again next semester. In addition to that, I have had counselling appointments in the past with little result, but now that the medications are helping I plan to resume these sessions to help with the cognitive side of these illnesses. With these additions to my treatment plan I hope to maintain academic success throughout the Winter term.
Thank you for your time,
Megan Shaw
I am appealing to drop two fall electives, ECON112 (Fall 2015) and BIOL110 (Fall 2015), as well a full year course (also an elective), SOCY122 (Fall 2015 and Winter 2016). Because I am enrolled in the School of Nursing, they only allow failure in one course before asking the student to withdraw from the program. As I already have one failure on my transcript and I don't believe I will be successful in any of the above courses, I would like to drop all three of them.
The reason behind these circumstances is a psychological challenge. I have suffered depression and anxiety for years, both conditions worsening once I came to Queens' and converted to the life of a university student. They have affected my grades in university in the past (undocumented), but it was only this summer I was finally able to start getting treatment for these illnesses. I started with HCDS in the summer, right after exams in April I had my first appointment. My hope was to get some improvement before the Fall term started, but unfortunately neither illness was responsive to treatment and so in October I was referred to a psychiatrist outside of Queens' to get additional treatment. My doctors and I are going through some trial and error to find a medical regime that works for me, and are finally having some success. I know I will need a letter from a professional to support this appeal and so I will submit a letter from my psychiatrist as soon as they have it ready.
This semester I struggled academically because of both my anxiety and depression. The depression made me have very low energy, very low moods/suicidal ideations, and also made it extremely difficult to focus. This made it impossible to get through readings and I quickly fell behind. Early on I submitted a few assignments, one for BIOL110 (a one page essay on plagiarism) and a one in ECON112 (a friend is also taking this class which made me work at it so she wouldn't realise how much I was struggling). I ran out of steam by the third week of classes and couldn't catch up. I couldn't ask for help from my professors because my anxiety told me that I wouldn't be believed, that I wasn't really sick, that it was embarrassing that I couldn't manage something as simple as class work, and that none of my professors would be understanding or willing to make accommodations. I do have a job that I need to pay for school and living expenses, and because of my low energy on days that I worked I would wake up early to go and fall into bed as soon as I got home, leaving no energy for my studies. Because of this cycle of low energy/difficulty focusing and anxiety over my failure, I fell further and further behind. I started feeling a bit better in recent weeks (early/mid-November), but by now I have missed so many assignments and quizzes and am so behind in readings that I feel hopeless and I don't believe I will be successful in any of these courses. I love nursing and I'm scared that if I am forced to finish these courses I will be removed from the program.
For the future, my doctors and I have found a medical regime that seems to be working, and I've experienced improvements in both conditions. While I'm still not at 100, I feel like I'm on my way there and can begin shouldering my academic responsibilities once again next semester. In addition to that, I have had counselling appointments in the past with little result, but now that the medications are helping I plan to resume these sessions to help with the cognitive side of these illnesses. With these additions to my treatment plan I hope to maintain academic success throughout the Winter term.
Thank you for your time,
Megan Shaw