Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To begin, I would like to thank whomever this letter is directed to for taking the time to consider my appeal. I am a student whose ability to overcome challenges in order to achieve academic success is strong and consistent. Issues of small impact reflect off of me without any harm or long lasting effect. However, this year at Queen¿¿s I suffered from events that occurred in my personal life which had a negative toll on my academics. I began my year strong, dealing well with the new and occasional difficulties first year puts forth like most. Then, in the middle of my studies I received news that my family was going through financial obstacles. This was the blow and mind occupying event that kept me awake at night feeling under pressure and stressed due to my inability to directly help those closest to me. At first I thought it would heal and I could go on as normal, but as time went on I noticed the agonizing impact of my family¿¿s situation growing stronger and stronger. Math 121 was my most difficult course and I often found myself enraged by small mistakes that I could usually move on from. My frustration grew which continually deteriorated my confidence. Instead of learning and moving forward with positivity every time I underachieved I lost confidence and lost hope, thinking that every mistake I made was forcing my family into the ground deeper and deeper. This went on to the point that I wasn¿¿t able to challenge myself, set goals and other healthy academic habits essential for success. This deeply impacted my not only the course that required my full practice but also the other courses I found easier. This deteriorated my grades first semester. My attendance suffered, my enthusiasm in seeking extracurricular suffered and I even began questioning the aspirations I have held for many years. I should have dropped Math 121 second semester as I was doing the most poorly in it so that I could collect myself and take it at a later time. My pride and resilience prevented me from doing so and I wish every day I could take that decision back. Ultimately, I was wrong, I could not return second semester and bump my results in the course and suffered even a greater toll realising that I had been defeated. The pressure on me due to the crisis my family was in proved to be too much which prevented me from finding my way through the difficulties that came with my academics. Finally, when the academic year came to an end, I felt that I didn¿¿t deserve a break and that I had a job that had to be done. As a result, I enrolled into the Math 121 summer course and prepared myself to endure another 4 months of hard work and commitment. This was my first goal that I felt confident in reaching for a long time. In addition, I found myself a challenging and work intensive full time position in a quality control lab in order to help my family overcome this problem that they were drowning in. With the full support of my family and the responsibility on my shoulders I worked as hard as I could for 4 months with the task of managing my work and studies in order to succeed in both areas as best as I could. I am quite proud of my results and for once in a long time believe that I can move forward from the issues I faced in Queen¿¿s and strive for success in the coming years of my Undergraduate studies. Not only have I been able to manage my school work, but have been able to help my family tremendously with the situation that they were helplessly in. I realise that it has been a long time since my fall/winter course has completed however, after my failures, I did not have the ability or confidence to seek help. A fellow summer classmate told me about the appeal option at Queen¿¿s and since then I have been trying to find as much as I can about this process. I hope that this letter has effectively communicated a great obstacle I faced and my ability to overcome the pressure. This has been a tremendous personal and academic advancement for me and I believe I deserve to have this course dropped in order to finally move on. My future aspiration is to enter the field of medicine in order to help people for the rest of my life. I hope I can completely put this hurdle in my past and work towards success each year. Therefore, with that being said I hope whoever reads this gives me the hand I need to move on.