Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Tanesha Duncan-Zulu
April 28th, 2024

Dear Academic Associate Dean, I am petitioning to retroactively drop my courses from the Fall 2023 semester. In the beginning of the school year I was confident that I would succeed restarting my first year, but unfortunately I was not able to keep up with that goal in mind. I went to my lectures, did my readings but I couldn’t escape the feelings of depression and fear of failure which ultimately was the leading factor to my downfall. In September everything was fine until a friend of mine passed away. She wasn't just any friend but a friend I met at the most inspirational period of my life.With this in mind after her passing I struggled seeing away out of my own depression, it felt as if everything that I put in place to be successful did not matter anymore, I couldn't see my future. I am not writing this letter to sell the Faculty a story but to share a glimpse into my mind at the time and ask for another opportunity.

In January of 2024, I committed myself to the psychiatric ward after an attempt on my life. Although this information is very alarming, this choice of action was very impulsive. I had just dropped my second semester courses and felt ashamed and convinced myself that I didn’t deserve the second chance that Queens had given me let alone anything after that. During my week-long stay, I was reminded of importance of routine and how to successfully navigate through my everyday life while dealing with the struggles I have with my mental health. This routine included starting new medications which I have been actively taking and has helped me stay focused on my goal and a steady sleep schedule to help the medication work effectively. I have also been attending cognitive behavioral therapy programming and continuing to attend my psychotherapy sessions.

Furthermore, my stay at the psychiatric ward was not the only eye opening experience I had. I was given the opportunity to attend a Children’s Aid Society run conference called PowerUP for Black youth. Attending the conference helped me remember my purpose for being here and why I enrolled at Queens.To my surprise I had 3 inspiring fellow attendees ask me how I was able to attend university while being an ex-foster child. This question made me very emotional because I never really thought of it that way. One of the open panels at the conference was to introduce oneself and speak about our experiences with trauma. The courage and confidence I needed to speak on the panel allowed me too recognize my potential to be successful when I apply myself to school. I can accomplish and inspire others like me to do the same and this was further embedded in my mind when a fellow attendee taking a gap year came up to me and told me she was proud of me and asked for help applying to universities.
In regards to my academic plan for the upcoming year, I will be actively working on creating a healthy work and personal life balance plan to ensure that my personal issues does not affect my academics in such a drastic way as before. Some steps that I plan to continue and begin are my CBT programming, making use of Queens additional mental health services through Yellow House, taking a reduced course load and solidifying a support systeming with friends and family. Although these efforts don’t seem like much I think I would have benefited from these supports beforehand if I had not let myself completely shut down. I now believe that I can have a future and in that future I see myself at Queens making it down that graduating stage getting my degree and becoming the person that I am meant to be not just someone I dream of being.