Petition Letter
To whom it may concern,
My name is Mackenzie Ling. I am a student in third year at Queen's looking to appeal the following courses: PHGY 170 (Winter 2019), HLTH 230 (Fall 2019) and GEOL 104 (Fall 2019) for credit standing. I am appealing now because I was not made aware prior to this year that this was an option for students severely impacted by extenuating circumstances throughout the academic term. In doing so, I strongly believe I would qualify for credit standing.
To begin, throughout the months of January through April 2019, I was severely impacted by serious mental health challenges that my affected my ability to focus and complete schoolwork for the PGHY 170 course the last 8-12 weeks of the term. I was dealing with mental health struggles that led me to attempting suicide in January 2019. Although I was able to complete all required tasks for the course, it was very difficult for me. Since my mental health was severely being impacted at the time, I visited Student Wellness Services to obtain medical assistance and to help get academic considerations throughout the rest of that academic term. I reached out to my professor Cynthia Pruss at various times for accommodations and academic consideration in relation to my condition at the time, which she gladly provided to me. From then on, I obtained an academic consideration from 4 days-3 months by filling out a verification of Personal Health Condition form for all my courses that term as shown by the provided documentation. Throughout the rest of that winter term, I underwent medical treatment and counseling to assist me throughout the rest of the term to get my symptoms under control. However, it was still hard for me to cope because of how severe my symptoms were.
Over the course of the summer, I had built up my confidence for fall 2019. I had high hopes for the academic year and was hoping to start fresh. Unfortunately, in late September 2019, a close childhood friend of mine had passed away from cancer, which came as quite a surprise because how young we were. We were both 19 at the time, which made me question everything thing in my life. It sent me into a dark depression a couple months later that further impacted my mental health condition and disability. I had extreme difficulty concentrating on assignments, on many tasks, my disability was severely impacted, and my mood had overall deeply affected me the few months following more than I had expected.
Throughout the 2019 fall semester, I put in several requests for academic consideration because of my mental health condition and deferred assignments/exams due to my disability being impacted. I deferred my HLTH 230 midterm assignment and final exam with Professor Jeffrey Lalonde. I reached out to him by email throughout midterm season to let him know what I was going through. He kindly accommodated me the best he could. I also deferred my final exam to January 9 th 2020 due to being impacted by my disability, underwent further medical treatment and assistance to manage my symptoms. Additionally, throughout the term, I had reached out for academic consideration and accommodations in relation to my disability for my GEOL 104 labs and midterm exams. Most importantly, in the final exam period for fall 2019, I had also notified my GEOL 104 Professor Christopher Omelon that I had been impacted by my disability while writing the exam. In doing so, he met with me at Mitchell hall after an appointment I had at the Student Wellness Services/QSAS section with my academic advisor Jason Harris on December 18th, 2019 to investigate the situation and looking into what options I had. While meeting, we agreed that if I passed the course (which I ended up doing) then no further investigation would be needed. As a result, although I had passed both courses, I was however not made aware that I could appeal for credit standing.
Lastly, in the documentation below, I have provided a list of academic consideration requests to show when they were made, the documentation I entered into the academic consideration request system for bereavement, academic consideration for mental health purposes, a summary of counseling services I received throughout 2019, and a medical note from my family doctor. Considering this information, I request you consider granting me credit standing for these courses. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to look over my letter and attached documentation. I am happy to meet with you should you want to discuss anything further.
Sincerely yours,
Mackenzie Ling.
My name is Mackenzie Ling. I am a student in third year at Queen's looking to appeal the following courses: PHGY 170 (Winter 2019), HLTH 230 (Fall 2019) and GEOL 104 (Fall 2019) for credit standing. I am appealing now because I was not made aware prior to this year that this was an option for students severely impacted by extenuating circumstances throughout the academic term. In doing so, I strongly believe I would qualify for credit standing.
To begin, throughout the months of January through April 2019, I was severely impacted by serious mental health challenges that my affected my ability to focus and complete schoolwork for the PGHY 170 course the last 8-12 weeks of the term. I was dealing with mental health struggles that led me to attempting suicide in January 2019. Although I was able to complete all required tasks for the course, it was very difficult for me. Since my mental health was severely being impacted at the time, I visited Student Wellness Services to obtain medical assistance and to help get academic considerations throughout the rest of that academic term. I reached out to my professor Cynthia Pruss at various times for accommodations and academic consideration in relation to my condition at the time, which she gladly provided to me. From then on, I obtained an academic consideration from 4 days-3 months by filling out a verification of Personal Health Condition form for all my courses that term as shown by the provided documentation. Throughout the rest of that winter term, I underwent medical treatment and counseling to assist me throughout the rest of the term to get my symptoms under control. However, it was still hard for me to cope because of how severe my symptoms were.
Over the course of the summer, I had built up my confidence for fall 2019. I had high hopes for the academic year and was hoping to start fresh. Unfortunately, in late September 2019, a close childhood friend of mine had passed away from cancer, which came as quite a surprise because how young we were. We were both 19 at the time, which made me question everything thing in my life. It sent me into a dark depression a couple months later that further impacted my mental health condition and disability. I had extreme difficulty concentrating on assignments, on many tasks, my disability was severely impacted, and my mood had overall deeply affected me the few months following more than I had expected.
Throughout the 2019 fall semester, I put in several requests for academic consideration because of my mental health condition and deferred assignments/exams due to my disability being impacted. I deferred my HLTH 230 midterm assignment and final exam with Professor Jeffrey Lalonde. I reached out to him by email throughout midterm season to let him know what I was going through. He kindly accommodated me the best he could. I also deferred my final exam to January 9 th 2020 due to being impacted by my disability, underwent further medical treatment and assistance to manage my symptoms. Additionally, throughout the term, I had reached out for academic consideration and accommodations in relation to my disability for my GEOL 104 labs and midterm exams. Most importantly, in the final exam period for fall 2019, I had also notified my GEOL 104 Professor Christopher Omelon that I had been impacted by my disability while writing the exam. In doing so, he met with me at Mitchell hall after an appointment I had at the Student Wellness Services/QSAS section with my academic advisor Jason Harris on December 18th, 2019 to investigate the situation and looking into what options I had. While meeting, we agreed that if I passed the course (which I ended up doing) then no further investigation would be needed. As a result, although I had passed both courses, I was however not made aware that I could appeal for credit standing.
Lastly, in the documentation below, I have provided a list of academic consideration requests to show when they were made, the documentation I entered into the academic consideration request system for bereavement, academic consideration for mental health purposes, a summary of counseling services I received throughout 2019, and a medical note from my family doctor. Considering this information, I request you consider granting me credit standing for these courses. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to look over my letter and attached documentation. I am happy to meet with you should you want to discuss anything further.
Sincerely yours,
Mackenzie Ling.