Petition Letter
I am appealing to request to waive the 21-day appeal deadline.
In November of 2012, an unfortunate occurrence took place that impacted my academic career. I travelled to Virginia with the Queen's Sailing Team to compete at a regatta at Navy for the weekend. On the saturday, the team went to the pool in the hotel to go to the hot tub to relax after a day of sailing. While in the hot tub, we were surrounded with kids running around and jumping in the pool who were being supervised by one adult. The kids were flipping into the pool and one of the young kids flipped into the pool, hit his neck and went unconscious. A fellow sailor and I responded because we are trained in First Aid and CPR because of our experience coaching sailing. We pulled him out of the pool. I held his neck and my fellow Queen's Sailing team member gave him CPR. The ambulance did not arrive for 7 minutes and the 8 year old child died in our hands. Several days following were spent undergoing questioning and investigation because of different laws in the US. When I returned to Queen's, I felt an overwhelming sense of emotional pain. We did not arrive home until later in November and when we returned we had to speak to the head of athletics, Queen's Sailing President and were offered counselling appointments. The second half of November is an incredibly busy time in school and so I spent my time upset by the event or trying to catch up for time I had missed while going through this event. By the time I had a moment to breathe, it was exam period and I went to Toronto to meet my Dad from Halifax so he could help me get through the event. I was able to regroup a bit for my exams later in December but went home as quickly as possible to be with my family in Halifax. When I returned I went to see a counsellor at Queen's.
Because of the timing and turmoil of the event, I did not consider appealing my exams or school work because I was distracted and did not know it was an option. I was distracted by my emotions following the event because I have always worked with kids coaching sailing and found this occurrence more or less horrific. I was also distracted by the stress and pressure from school during the end of November and exam time. In addition, I simply did not know that appealing or changing the date due to extenuating circumstances was an option to consider.
I am now in fourth year. Yesterday I was visiting an advisor at Career Services here at Queen's and was going through an application for UNICEF. One of the questions asked if I have had any special obstacles limiting my ability throughout my academic career. This is the first time I had realized the impact of this occurrence on my academic performance for the Fall term of 2012. I understand that this appeal will not change my GPA significantly, but that is not why I am doing it. I feel as though the grades I received do not reflect my ability as a student. I want to be able to recognize how this event impacted me during my time at Queen's. I understand that there must be many fourth year students concerned about their marks and submitting appeals that are based on less severe events. This is not why I am appealing. I am in a high academic standing and am not concerned about the GPA change. I am concerned that the marks I received reflect the poor mental state I was in due to this event rather than my ability as a student.
Although I am now in fourth year, I have learned from this experience and hope to do things differently in the future. I hope to speak to fellow professionals if something happens as the I am going through the process rather than after the event has occurred. I know it was an incredibly chaotic and challenging time, but in the future if I can, I hope to avoid such negative consequences by addressing the issue sooner. I will graduate from Queen's with or without this appeal, but I hope that you will consider the impact of this event on my academic career.
Thank you.
In November of 2012, an unfortunate occurrence took place that impacted my academic career. I travelled to Virginia with the Queen's Sailing Team to compete at a regatta at Navy for the weekend. On the saturday, the team went to the pool in the hotel to go to the hot tub to relax after a day of sailing. While in the hot tub, we were surrounded with kids running around and jumping in the pool who were being supervised by one adult. The kids were flipping into the pool and one of the young kids flipped into the pool, hit his neck and went unconscious. A fellow sailor and I responded because we are trained in First Aid and CPR because of our experience coaching sailing. We pulled him out of the pool. I held his neck and my fellow Queen's Sailing team member gave him CPR. The ambulance did not arrive for 7 minutes and the 8 year old child died in our hands. Several days following were spent undergoing questioning and investigation because of different laws in the US. When I returned to Queen's, I felt an overwhelming sense of emotional pain. We did not arrive home until later in November and when we returned we had to speak to the head of athletics, Queen's Sailing President and were offered counselling appointments. The second half of November is an incredibly busy time in school and so I spent my time upset by the event or trying to catch up for time I had missed while going through this event. By the time I had a moment to breathe, it was exam period and I went to Toronto to meet my Dad from Halifax so he could help me get through the event. I was able to regroup a bit for my exams later in December but went home as quickly as possible to be with my family in Halifax. When I returned I went to see a counsellor at Queen's.
Because of the timing and turmoil of the event, I did not consider appealing my exams or school work because I was distracted and did not know it was an option. I was distracted by my emotions following the event because I have always worked with kids coaching sailing and found this occurrence more or less horrific. I was also distracted by the stress and pressure from school during the end of November and exam time. In addition, I simply did not know that appealing or changing the date due to extenuating circumstances was an option to consider.
I am now in fourth year. Yesterday I was visiting an advisor at Career Services here at Queen's and was going through an application for UNICEF. One of the questions asked if I have had any special obstacles limiting my ability throughout my academic career. This is the first time I had realized the impact of this occurrence on my academic performance for the Fall term of 2012. I understand that this appeal will not change my GPA significantly, but that is not why I am doing it. I feel as though the grades I received do not reflect my ability as a student. I want to be able to recognize how this event impacted me during my time at Queen's. I understand that there must be many fourth year students concerned about their marks and submitting appeals that are based on less severe events. This is not why I am appealing. I am in a high academic standing and am not concerned about the GPA change. I am concerned that the marks I received reflect the poor mental state I was in due to this event rather than my ability as a student.
Although I am now in fourth year, I have learned from this experience and hope to do things differently in the future. I hope to speak to fellow professionals if something happens as the I am going through the process rather than after the event has occurred. I know it was an incredibly chaotic and challenging time, but in the future if I can, I hope to avoid such negative consequences by addressing the issue sooner. I will graduate from Queen's with or without this appeal, but I hope that you will consider the impact of this event on my academic career.
Thank you.