Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Emma Crouse and I am going into third year, hopefully in the Psychology program. I have been wanting to be a forensic psychologist from the time I knew what that title was and have a great interest in all branches of psychology. Thus far, I have enjoyed the psychology course content immensely and am excited to see what more is to come in future courses. The reason I am writing this letter to you is concerning my academic standing in the psychology major program. Unfortunately, this year I did not meet the required GPA in psychology courses to continue the path, despite meeting the minimum for the required PSYC 202 and 203 classes. I am applying for a credit standing in my PSYC courses besides PSYC 202 and PSYC 203. I have always strived for excellence in my academics, so this situation has me completely devastated and questioning a lot about my path at Queens. I have always taken pride and great care in my academics as well as truly enjoy the work I do in my courses. I hope to get through these struggles and get back to excelling at what I love to do.

This year has been one of the most challenging years of my life for many reasons. I have had struggles with my physical health, mental health and have gone through some traumatic family experiences. I am currently attempting to mend and fix these problems but as you know health in all areas is not an easy fix and takes time to mend, mentally and physically. My physical health has been a rocky journey, as just before final exams I found out some concerning levels that have been attributed to my poor sleep qualities, alertness, and overall health, that gave me an explanation to concerns that I had all year. In the end of January and early February I was advised to go to the ER where I had chest x-rays due to an intense infection that had me ill for several weeks. As for my mental health journey, my therapist has been helping me uncover some issues I may be dealing with, and I was prescribed medication that has been a rocky road to say the least. Throughout the second semester I also was told that I fit the diagnostic criteria for ADHD and have still yet to try medication but am working on that now. Other than the health struggles I have been through some traumatic times within my family. A situation arose on Christmas day where I needed to call the police and get authorities involved. This situation has been an ongoing struggle with my father and has progressively gotten worse, the climax being this year due to addiction and assault. This situation has taken a serious toll on my mental and physical health and has me worried for the safety of my family and myself. Being away from my mom who is at home dealing with the situation firsthand has caused me significant stress and spontaneous trips back home to deal with these problems. The incident on December 25th ended up in an arrest, protective orders and no contact which did not necessarily stop the harassment. Throughout the year leading up to the major incident I still had contact and received harassment even being away from home that left myself and my family very concerned and upset. On top of the physical health issues that I did not know I was dealing with until later on, I tried to focus solely on my studies but when there is a safety concern for my family and myself, as well as dealing with the aftermath of traumatic experiences from this year, I could not separate these issues from my school life, which is apparent through my grades.

All my struggles this year are connected where my physical health affected my mental health, for example being extremely deficient in vitamin D left me exhausted all the time not knowing how long I would fall asleep for, which affected me during class time and attention, then performing poorly which affected a part of my anxiety which is academic based causing a spiral. Situations like these were very frequent and were a never-ending cycle. Also, the discovery of ADHD has answered some of my questions about attention span and concentration which also was on the low due to deficiencies and mental health. This continuing spiral also suffered after the December 25th situation and my struggles at that point were extremely debilitating. The stress, worry, trauma, mental health, exhaustion, and physical health have been a nightmare that I could not seem to wake up from despite interventions from a therapist and medical professionals. I am still working on these issues today but have hope for next semester. I have been working with an amazing therapist who is more than happy to discuss any of these situations or contact you if need be as well as she is working on a letter to submit for this petition. In the past I tried to apply for academic consideration but faced issues when submitting documentation as for some instances I did not have documentation of traumatic instances or mental health struggles, for example. I have been dealing with these situations all year and I ask that you look at the reality that I have been facing and see how it impacted my year.

I recognize that I am asking you to look at my case and take consideration for the struggles I have gone through this year and as I have been told they are not minimal. That said I greatly appreciate the time you are taking to investigate and make decisions about my situation. I am beyond prepared to face and deal with the fallout of my academic standing as well as the situations I am dealing with outside of school as you are not to blame for outstanding circumstances in my personal life. I want this more than anything and am promising you to work as hard as I can and then some to prove I belong in this program and will keep up with Queens standards.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Emma Crouse
20286542