Petition Letter
My name is Jordyn Leerentveld and I??m in second year as a life science major. In the fall semester of 2021, I took ANAT215 as my life science elective. Despite all my hard work and effort, I did very poorly in the class. As I??m a life science major I do not require this course, however I choose to take it as I was genuinely interested in the content. I spent many hours every week on anatomy, attended every lecture, every lab and read every assigned chapter of the textbook. Although I spent many hours and tried all different study techniques when preparing for the lab midterm, unfortunately it was not reflected in my grade. I was at a lost after receiving my mark and was not sure how to move forward so I met with Professor MacKenzie. We discussed how I prepared for the midterm and what I do on a weekly basis for the course. Professor Mackenzie and I agreed that my efforts did not reflect in my mark. We discussed a few new strategies I could try to implement for the final, however most strategies had already been attempted. Due to scheduling conflicts of midterms, the ANAT midterm was pushed back by two weeks and did not take place until the second week of November. Therefore, by the time I had received my midterm mark it was too late for me to drop the class without penalties. So, I continued to persevere and study as hard as I possible could but clearly, I still struggled on the final and did very poorly in the course. I feel this is due to many extenuating circumstances I faced in the fall semester.
I don??t think I realized the toll COVID was taking on me until this past semester. I was successfully able to manage first year online university through COVID, however as time has gone on COVID has begun to impact many faucets of my life. Unfortunately, in the fall semester I only had two in person classes, hence I still spent a large amount of time alone. I believe spending this large amount of alone time, caused me to experience many anxious thoughts and feelings. I suffer from anxiety and extreme stress. I often try to disregard the impact the stress is having on me as I always just hope it will go away. The stress had a huge impact on my eating and sleeping habits, most nights I would sleep for four hours. I'd get quite anxious at night because I was always worried about school, and I'd become concerned the minute I wasn't studying. I understand that this is not a healthy or efficient method to study and do well in school, and the effects of this stress have been evident in my marks this semester, particularly in ANAT215. The midterm and exam in ANAT215 are bellringers, hence it is a very stressful situation for any individual to begin. For myself, I experienced even more stress than in a typical exam situation due to the bells and short amount of time causing me to blank and forgot many topics I had studied for hours.
In order to better prepare myself for the winter semester, I have discussed with my parents and doctors how I??m feeling and strategies to deal with these feelings. To help me function daily, I'm currently taking anxiety medication. As COVID is still around and school is back online, my parents and I have begun to find a therapist for me. I have come to terms that I can no longer deal with these issues on my own and I require further assistance. In addition, I have realized that I perform better on assignments than in testing situations as I have less time pressure on me. For this reason, I have chosen a life science elective for the winter semester with many more assignments and much less weight on exams.
I hope I can be granted an CR in ANAT215. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Jordyn Leerentveld
20215944
I don??t think I realized the toll COVID was taking on me until this past semester. I was successfully able to manage first year online university through COVID, however as time has gone on COVID has begun to impact many faucets of my life. Unfortunately, in the fall semester I only had two in person classes, hence I still spent a large amount of time alone. I believe spending this large amount of alone time, caused me to experience many anxious thoughts and feelings. I suffer from anxiety and extreme stress. I often try to disregard the impact the stress is having on me as I always just hope it will go away. The stress had a huge impact on my eating and sleeping habits, most nights I would sleep for four hours. I'd get quite anxious at night because I was always worried about school, and I'd become concerned the minute I wasn't studying. I understand that this is not a healthy or efficient method to study and do well in school, and the effects of this stress have been evident in my marks this semester, particularly in ANAT215. The midterm and exam in ANAT215 are bellringers, hence it is a very stressful situation for any individual to begin. For myself, I experienced even more stress than in a typical exam situation due to the bells and short amount of time causing me to blank and forgot many topics I had studied for hours.
In order to better prepare myself for the winter semester, I have discussed with my parents and doctors how I??m feeling and strategies to deal with these feelings. To help me function daily, I'm currently taking anxiety medication. As COVID is still around and school is back online, my parents and I have begun to find a therapist for me. I have come to terms that I can no longer deal with these issues on my own and I require further assistance. In addition, I have realized that I perform better on assignments than in testing situations as I have less time pressure on me. For this reason, I have chosen a life science elective for the winter semester with many more assignments and much less weight on exams.
I hope I can be granted an CR in ANAT215. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Jordyn Leerentveld
20215944