Petition Letter
To whom this may concern,
My name is Caroline Uchida and I am a second year Psychology student. I am requesting to waive the appeal deadline for my 6.0 unit ECON110/111 course that was completed in April of 2017. I¿¿m kindly asking that you consider my circumstances for not requesting any appeals until now. There are several factors that have contributed as to why I had not previously made an academic appeal for this course until the following year.
Firstly, I was unaware of the different types of appeals that could be made, as well as their appropriate deadlines. Previously, it was my understanding that once I missed the deadline to drop a course, that I had no alternative to appeal. Because I was enrolled in the full year course for Economics, it was my impression that I would be required to complete the course otherwise I would face financial/academic penalty for dropping the course past the deadline.
Additionally, I have suffered from Depression and Anxiety for several years before coming to Queen¿¿s, but it was only until my first year at University that I decided to reach out for treatment. I had seen several counsellors during the year, and all these appointments can be found on file from Student Wellness Services. During my first year of studies, I had a particularly difficult time adjusting to not only my social environment, but my academic one as well. Because it was my understanding that I had to complete my Economics course after I missed the deadline to drop it, this only brought more pressure and stress for me and as a result, I did poorly in the course. I had a particularly difficult second semester, as I found my mental health was spiralling and was feeling less and less motivated to not only perform well academically, but I lost a significant interest in my personal life as well. After I completed my first year at Queen¿¿s, my mental health had not improved and I sought the help of my family doctor, who prescribed me with medication. I have been taking this medication since July, however I did not see much of an improvement. I recently had an appointment at LaSalle to switch medications, which can also be found on file. Although the importance of academics is not meant be understated, it is also very important for me to focus on my mental health. For this reason, I felt that I had to put off the pressure of some of my academics to focus on improving my wellbeing.
Finally, just in this past month, my friend Leah Battista had suddenly fallen ill and passed away. She was a third year student here at Queen¿¿s and her death had come as a huge shock to me. We had met through each other¿¿s Gael fam, as I was Co-Gaels with her best friend/housemate and she was Co-Gaels with mine. It seemed too good to be true that our friend groups were so similar and that¿¿d we had met in such a strange way, so it wasn¿¿t hard to become close. She and I had started to become good friends alongside our other friends, and it was only a few short weeks ago that she had started to feel unwell and was rushed to the hospital. Although I am still coming to terms with her passing and have sought counselling at LaSalle, the somberness of the entire situation is still very real and recent. Even though these appeals weren¿¿t brought to my attention until recently, it felt that it was an inappropriate time for me to put a deadline appeal forward until I could begin to come to terms with what had happened.
All things considered, I sincerely hope that you take into consideration the different circumstances that prevented me from requesting this deadline appeal until now. I appreciate the time you have taken to review this appeal, and hope to hear from you in the near future.
Kind regards,
Caroline Uchida
My name is Caroline Uchida and I am a second year Psychology student. I am requesting to waive the appeal deadline for my 6.0 unit ECON110/111 course that was completed in April of 2017. I¿¿m kindly asking that you consider my circumstances for not requesting any appeals until now. There are several factors that have contributed as to why I had not previously made an academic appeal for this course until the following year.
Firstly, I was unaware of the different types of appeals that could be made, as well as their appropriate deadlines. Previously, it was my understanding that once I missed the deadline to drop a course, that I had no alternative to appeal. Because I was enrolled in the full year course for Economics, it was my impression that I would be required to complete the course otherwise I would face financial/academic penalty for dropping the course past the deadline.
Additionally, I have suffered from Depression and Anxiety for several years before coming to Queen¿¿s, but it was only until my first year at University that I decided to reach out for treatment. I had seen several counsellors during the year, and all these appointments can be found on file from Student Wellness Services. During my first year of studies, I had a particularly difficult time adjusting to not only my social environment, but my academic one as well. Because it was my understanding that I had to complete my Economics course after I missed the deadline to drop it, this only brought more pressure and stress for me and as a result, I did poorly in the course. I had a particularly difficult second semester, as I found my mental health was spiralling and was feeling less and less motivated to not only perform well academically, but I lost a significant interest in my personal life as well. After I completed my first year at Queen¿¿s, my mental health had not improved and I sought the help of my family doctor, who prescribed me with medication. I have been taking this medication since July, however I did not see much of an improvement. I recently had an appointment at LaSalle to switch medications, which can also be found on file. Although the importance of academics is not meant be understated, it is also very important for me to focus on my mental health. For this reason, I felt that I had to put off the pressure of some of my academics to focus on improving my wellbeing.
Finally, just in this past month, my friend Leah Battista had suddenly fallen ill and passed away. She was a third year student here at Queen¿¿s and her death had come as a huge shock to me. We had met through each other¿¿s Gael fam, as I was Co-Gaels with her best friend/housemate and she was Co-Gaels with mine. It seemed too good to be true that our friend groups were so similar and that¿¿d we had met in such a strange way, so it wasn¿¿t hard to become close. She and I had started to become good friends alongside our other friends, and it was only a few short weeks ago that she had started to feel unwell and was rushed to the hospital. Although I am still coming to terms with her passing and have sought counselling at LaSalle, the somberness of the entire situation is still very real and recent. Even though these appeals weren¿¿t brought to my attention until recently, it felt that it was an inappropriate time for me to put a deadline appeal forward until I could begin to come to terms with what had happened.
All things considered, I sincerely hope that you take into consideration the different circumstances that prevented me from requesting this deadline appeal until now. I appreciate the time you have taken to review this appeal, and hope to hear from you in the near future.
Kind regards,
Caroline Uchida