Petition Letter
To Associate Deans (Studies),
I am writing this letter to explain the cause of my academic standing for my first year in the science program. My father, who lived in the United States, started to have problems with his health early on in the year. His concerns started near the end of November 2015. My family and I were not aware at first as to what the problem was. He had been having severe bouts of vomiting and body aches. During this initial part of my dad¿¿s illness I felt very emotional distraught and distracted, especially since we didn¿¿t know what was going on and I lived so far away. My mother and I visited him after my last exam before the Christmas Break. While studying for my finals, my mind was always on my father and this made it difficult to focus on the task at hand. As we entered the New Year, he received many medical tests and assessments that confirmed that he had stage 4 lung cancer. Throughout the next few months there were constant complications as a result of the cancer as well as the chemotherapy, making it exceedingly harder to keep my focus on my courses. I tried my best to stay focus but couldn¿¿t, thinking that I might loose my father at any given moment. Once I wrote the last of my winter exams I flew out to be by my father¿¿s side. At that time, my dad had already been in the ICU for 2 weeks and was on a ventilator. Two and a half weeks after I had arrived, my father lost his battle with lung cancer.
This has been a very difficult and trying year for my family and I, and I know that these grades do not reflect my capacity. I am a very hardworking student and I would like my marks to reflect this, for this reason I am asking to have my grades for this year appealed.
I am writing this letter to explain the cause of my academic standing for my first year in the science program. My father, who lived in the United States, started to have problems with his health early on in the year. His concerns started near the end of November 2015. My family and I were not aware at first as to what the problem was. He had been having severe bouts of vomiting and body aches. During this initial part of my dad¿¿s illness I felt very emotional distraught and distracted, especially since we didn¿¿t know what was going on and I lived so far away. My mother and I visited him after my last exam before the Christmas Break. While studying for my finals, my mind was always on my father and this made it difficult to focus on the task at hand. As we entered the New Year, he received many medical tests and assessments that confirmed that he had stage 4 lung cancer. Throughout the next few months there were constant complications as a result of the cancer as well as the chemotherapy, making it exceedingly harder to keep my focus on my courses. I tried my best to stay focus but couldn¿¿t, thinking that I might loose my father at any given moment. Once I wrote the last of my winter exams I flew out to be by my father¿¿s side. At that time, my dad had already been in the ICU for 2 weeks and was on a ventilator. Two and a half weeks after I had arrived, my father lost his battle with lung cancer.
This has been a very difficult and trying year for my family and I, and I know that these grades do not reflect my capacity. I am a very hardworking student and I would like my marks to reflect this, for this reason I am asking to have my grades for this year appealed.