Petition Letter
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Claudia Sydor, and I am a third year undergraduate student doing a major in Life Sciences and a minor in World Language Studies. I am appealing to late drop the CHEM 281 course that I enrolled in this semester.
Early in October, I became sick. What started off as a minor chest cold became progressively worse over the course of two weeks. On the 18th of October, it became serious enough that I decided to go to KGH, where I was diagnosed with pneumonia in my right lung. I received antibiotics to treat the illness, and although they helped to combat the pneumonia, the antibiotics also left me feeling very ill, without an appetite and exhausted for an additional two weeks. Even now, a month and a half after initially becoming sick, I have not completely recovered my health and I find myself in a constant state of exhaustion.
The illness made it very difficult to attend all of my classes, to complete my work efficiently and to stay on top of my course load. Because it was midterm season, I was unable to take any time off in order to allow myself to recover. I pushed myself to work through the illness and I worked very hard in order to receive good grades on my examinations and assignments (which I succeeded in doing). However, pushing myself so hard while I was sick deprived me of adequate sleep, and this has led to chronic fatigue and a build up of stress and anxiety. Inevitably, I fell behind in my classes, particularly in CHEM 281. I had that course's first midterm early in October before I became ill, but once I got sick, I had to put what little energy I had into studying for my midterms and big assignments for other classes (which took priority at that time), and I subsequently was unable to keep up with CHEM 281's regular coursework.
I missed the course drop deadline because I really did not want to drop any of my courses. I am a good student and I had been doing very well in all of my courses, and it was my goal to complete five courses this semester. However, last weekend I was forced to re-evaluate my situation, and I realized that I had fallen too far behind in my coursework and my recovery was going too slowly because I had not been able to rest sufficiently. It is not only unrealistic for me to believe that I will be able to keep up with my current workload without further compromising my health, but I have also reached a point where I have fallen too far behind in CHEM 281 to realistically achieve a passing grade. After speaking to my family, a counsellor at Student Wellness Services and an academic advisor at Student Services, I have decided that the best decision for me would be to drop the course this semester.
That is why I am writing to you in hopes that you will consider allowing me to late drop CHEM 281, so that I may reduce my course load, have the chance to focus on and achieve good marks in my remaining four classes, and have more time to rest and recover my health. If permitted, I will take this course again next year, and I will make up the missed units by taking another course over the summer, as it is still my intention to graduate in the Spring of 2018.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I truly hope that you will take this appeal into consideration.
Sincerely,
Claudia Sydor
My name is Claudia Sydor, and I am a third year undergraduate student doing a major in Life Sciences and a minor in World Language Studies. I am appealing to late drop the CHEM 281 course that I enrolled in this semester.
Early in October, I became sick. What started off as a minor chest cold became progressively worse over the course of two weeks. On the 18th of October, it became serious enough that I decided to go to KGH, where I was diagnosed with pneumonia in my right lung. I received antibiotics to treat the illness, and although they helped to combat the pneumonia, the antibiotics also left me feeling very ill, without an appetite and exhausted for an additional two weeks. Even now, a month and a half after initially becoming sick, I have not completely recovered my health and I find myself in a constant state of exhaustion.
The illness made it very difficult to attend all of my classes, to complete my work efficiently and to stay on top of my course load. Because it was midterm season, I was unable to take any time off in order to allow myself to recover. I pushed myself to work through the illness and I worked very hard in order to receive good grades on my examinations and assignments (which I succeeded in doing). However, pushing myself so hard while I was sick deprived me of adequate sleep, and this has led to chronic fatigue and a build up of stress and anxiety. Inevitably, I fell behind in my classes, particularly in CHEM 281. I had that course's first midterm early in October before I became ill, but once I got sick, I had to put what little energy I had into studying for my midterms and big assignments for other classes (which took priority at that time), and I subsequently was unable to keep up with CHEM 281's regular coursework.
I missed the course drop deadline because I really did not want to drop any of my courses. I am a good student and I had been doing very well in all of my courses, and it was my goal to complete five courses this semester. However, last weekend I was forced to re-evaluate my situation, and I realized that I had fallen too far behind in my coursework and my recovery was going too slowly because I had not been able to rest sufficiently. It is not only unrealistic for me to believe that I will be able to keep up with my current workload without further compromising my health, but I have also reached a point where I have fallen too far behind in CHEM 281 to realistically achieve a passing grade. After speaking to my family, a counsellor at Student Wellness Services and an academic advisor at Student Services, I have decided that the best decision for me would be to drop the course this semester.
That is why I am writing to you in hopes that you will consider allowing me to late drop CHEM 281, so that I may reduce my course load, have the chance to focus on and achieve good marks in my remaining four classes, and have more time to rest and recover my health. If permitted, I will take this course again next year, and I will make up the missed units by taking another course over the summer, as it is still my intention to graduate in the Spring of 2018.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I truly hope that you will take this appeal into consideration.
Sincerely,
Claudia Sydor