Petition Letter
To whom it may concern,
My name is Geoffrey Mayotte. I just finished my first year at Queen's and recently received a letter asking me to withdraw for a year due to a GPA of below .7. I currently have a hold on my records but I know for a fact that I failed two of my five courses and barely passed the other three. My goal in this is to hopefully get credit standing in the three that I passed, as well as to have lifted the request to withdraw for a year. My extenuating circumstances are as follows, at the end of November 2016 right before exams for the fall term I had to undergo surgery to have my gull bladder removed. This meant I had to leave campus for one week, and be bed ridden for the following 6 weeks. The following 6 weeks were during exams. This meant that I was unable to go to the library to study (I found studying in my residence impossible), unable to go to the cafeteria, unable to essentially do anything. I had a moderate performance throughout my first semester and that is on me, but my exam scores left me in a terrible position for the second semester (all my courses were full year). The second extenuating circumstance I encountered was just as second semester was beginning. I had made a plan with my parents to turn my grades around and to really hit the ground running as all I wanted to do was succeed, and in the beginning I did. But at the end of January my best friend from my home town passed away. It was extremely sudden and was my first experience with death. I left the school and went home. I stayed home for another week, during this week I was unable to study for an exam in linear algebra, do a major assignment for economics, do any of my physics work, work on my calculus paper, or prepare for my philosophy essay and exam. by the time I was able to come back to school I was depressed. As an 18 year old who had just had his first experience with death and have it be his best friend I was at a loss. I had stopped eating and sleeping almost entirely, lost all motivation for school, and cut off a lot of relationships. the difference between my first and second semester grades through out the year are clear. something was wrong. finally just before exams for second semester had begun I went to the hospital yet again. I had a mental breakdown about everything and hadn't slept in a week. my depression was severe at this point and it was clear I needed medical intervention. I went to the emergency room and was able to make a plan with the doctor about how to get everything back in order. I started talking to people about my issues and really started to deal with them. Exams didn't fit quite well with this however, and my getting things in order overtook my preparation for exams. My mental health took priority and yet again I was unable to properly prepare for my examinations like I wanted to. This obviously left me with very poor scores and led me to be in the position I am in today. I was close with my calculus professor by the end of the year and I went to him with all of this. He told me he was shocked by my scores considering he knew me to be a fairly engaged and interested student. He was the one who helped me come forward to appeal for CR and the withdrawal. I take full responsibility for not reaching out for the help I needed during the year. That is entirely my fault, but what I needed help with was completely out of my control. Thank you
Geoff
My name is Geoffrey Mayotte. I just finished my first year at Queen's and recently received a letter asking me to withdraw for a year due to a GPA of below .7. I currently have a hold on my records but I know for a fact that I failed two of my five courses and barely passed the other three. My goal in this is to hopefully get credit standing in the three that I passed, as well as to have lifted the request to withdraw for a year. My extenuating circumstances are as follows, at the end of November 2016 right before exams for the fall term I had to undergo surgery to have my gull bladder removed. This meant I had to leave campus for one week, and be bed ridden for the following 6 weeks. The following 6 weeks were during exams. This meant that I was unable to go to the library to study (I found studying in my residence impossible), unable to go to the cafeteria, unable to essentially do anything. I had a moderate performance throughout my first semester and that is on me, but my exam scores left me in a terrible position for the second semester (all my courses were full year). The second extenuating circumstance I encountered was just as second semester was beginning. I had made a plan with my parents to turn my grades around and to really hit the ground running as all I wanted to do was succeed, and in the beginning I did. But at the end of January my best friend from my home town passed away. It was extremely sudden and was my first experience with death. I left the school and went home. I stayed home for another week, during this week I was unable to study for an exam in linear algebra, do a major assignment for economics, do any of my physics work, work on my calculus paper, or prepare for my philosophy essay and exam. by the time I was able to come back to school I was depressed. As an 18 year old who had just had his first experience with death and have it be his best friend I was at a loss. I had stopped eating and sleeping almost entirely, lost all motivation for school, and cut off a lot of relationships. the difference between my first and second semester grades through out the year are clear. something was wrong. finally just before exams for second semester had begun I went to the hospital yet again. I had a mental breakdown about everything and hadn't slept in a week. my depression was severe at this point and it was clear I needed medical intervention. I went to the emergency room and was able to make a plan with the doctor about how to get everything back in order. I started talking to people about my issues and really started to deal with them. Exams didn't fit quite well with this however, and my getting things in order overtook my preparation for exams. My mental health took priority and yet again I was unable to properly prepare for my examinations like I wanted to. This obviously left me with very poor scores and led me to be in the position I am in today. I was close with my calculus professor by the end of the year and I went to him with all of this. He told me he was shocked by my scores considering he knew me to be a fairly engaged and interested student. He was the one who helped me come forward to appeal for CR and the withdrawal. I take full responsibility for not reaching out for the help I needed during the year. That is entirely my fault, but what I needed help with was completely out of my control. Thank you
Geoff