Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing to appeal my academic withdrawal from Queen¿¿s University. I had anticipated the receipt of a letter informing me of my withdrawal, but I was still upset when I received it. I would like to urge you to reinstate me for next year.
I will admit I had a poor academic year in my second year at Queen¿¿s and my grades were a result of that. I do not mean to make excuses for my academic performance, but I would like to explain my circumstances. Late November of 2013, nearing exams for first semester, my grandfather passed away in a tragic car accident. This affected me greatly as I had to go home to Richmond Hill right away for the funeral proceedings missing the last couple weeks of class. My grandfather¿¿s death also impacted me mentally as we had been close as long as I could remember. Since I was not expecting his untimely passing, I was extremely saddened and was not able to focus on my studies and prepare for my upcoming final exams at the time. I knew I had done poorly that semester, but once I received my grades, I was still disappointed. This placed me in a downward spiral throughout the second semester as well as I felt like I was unable to do well anymore.
Another issue that affected my academics during my second year was that I choose my courses poorly. I didn¿¿t know at the time what I wanted to do with my degree and I chose to take two courses, Anatomy 215 and Physiology 214, which I should not have taken. They were outside of my field of interest and as a result I did worse in them compared to my other fall term courses that year.
Only once the school year was over, I was able to catch my breath and recover myself since I no longer had the stress of a full course load. My grades in this past year have been much better compared to then, but just not enough to make up for my second year. I did manage to obtain a G.P.A. of over 1.6 this year, but it wasn¿¿t enough to outweigh my grades from second year. I have also taken steps to repeat the one course I was not satisfied with this past year, Chemistry 281, as I know I can do better. I am currently taking it in the summer term. I had also previously spoken to a professor about what specific Mathematics courses I should take to obtain my degree before my course selection for third year. This helped me greatly in my course selection for this past year compared to my second year.
I understand now that I should have sought counselling to understand how to reduce the impact my grandfather¿¿s death had on my education. I should have also spoken with my professors once I saw my grades second semester were also not going well to try and get help with the course material. Now I know I also need to speak to a counselor about what courses are right for me. I am also going to speak with the professor that previously helped me to make sure I am taking all of the correct courses for my fourth year as I can never have too much advice. This will better prepare me in my course selection for my fourth year at Queen¿¿s.