Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Dr. Doorit Naaman,

I am writing to respectfully petition for a waiver of the Requirement to Withdraw for One Year following my academic standing at the end of the 2025–2026 winter term. I understand that my cGPA has fallen 0.07 below the standard required to continue, but I am asking for a reconsideration in light of two extenuating circumstances that were beyond my control and directly affected my academic performance during that term: the absence of my primary support system for the duration of the semester and the onset of an unrecognized and unmanaged attention-related condition that I am now actively pursuing assessment for.

Throughout the school, I struggled with symptoms I now recognize as consistent with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), though they went unidentified during the school year. These included significant difficulty initiating and sustaining focus on assignments and an inability to manage multiple course deadlines simultaneously. I found myself repeatedly losing track of coursework, missing submission windows not out of disinterest but out of an inability to organize my time in the way I believed I should be capable of.
I want to be transparent that I did not have a formal diagnosis at the time, and I did not seek support through Queen’s Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) because I did not yet understand what I was experiencing. In retrospect, what I attributed to personal shortcomings were symptoms of an unmanaged condition. I am now in the process of pursuing formal assessment, and I intend to register with QSAS once documentation is in place so that appropriate accommodations can be established before I return to full-time studies.

Adding on to my point, my mother and sister, who are my primary support system, traveled to India at the beginning of the winter term on January 15th, with my sister following soon after her on the 22nd. My mother came back April 28th, after the term concluded, which left me to manage my affairs by myself for the first time. Prior to first year, I relied heavily on my mother and sister to guide me through the stressors of school and often asked for their advice to help me succeed in the classroom. As a first-year student still adjusting to living independently, their prolonged absence left me without that foundation during what was already an academically demanding period. Prior to this year, my grades in high school were in the upper percentile of my year. But during this past term, I was managing coursework, personal well-being, and an unrecognized attention disorder entirely on my own and made decisions such as adding too much to my course load due to personal anxieties of falling behind my peers, rather than listening to my own personal learning style without having anyone to help give me advice based on what I needed to succeed, leading me to have a bigger workload than I had the tools to manage.

Despite these circumstances, my cGPA fell only marginally below the threshold for academic probation, which I believe reflects my underlying capability and commitment even under extremely difficult conditions. And since that year, I have started working towards an actual diagnosis and aim to build up a proper support system with new friends and my family. I am actively testing out new learning strategies in a summer course I am taking. I still intend on continuing the Bachelor of Science Honors pathway, taking a lighter workload in the fall to raise my GPA and allow me to focus better on the subjects that require my full attention.
I am deeply committed to my education at Queen’s University and to the goals that brought me here. I am approaching this appeal not as an attempt to erase what happened, but as a genuine request for the opportunity to return under circumstances that are meaningfully different from those that led to my withdrawal. This term was not a reflection of my potential or my dedication. But as a result of circumstances, I did not yet have the tools or awareness to manage. I am asking for the opportunity to demonstrate what I am truly capable of when the right supports are in place.

I am happy to provide any additional documentation or to meet with you to discuss my situation further. Thank you sincerely for your time and consideration.

Respectfully,
Rhea Chandra Swargam
Student Number: 20533221
Program: Honours Science, Year 1
Email: 24fdf4@queensu.ca
Phone: 289-971-9040