Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 2200
Submitted: May 11, 2016 at 7:48:42 PM
First Name: Anna
Last Name: McKinney
Student Number: 10135635
Email: 13aim2@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BSC
Plan: BIOL
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline, Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Code: MATH 121
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: CHEM 211
Term: Fall
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: BIOL 243
Term: Fall
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor's Name: Bill Nelson
Code: GNDS 215
Term: Winter
Year: 2016
Petition Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor's Name: Melissa Houghtaling
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: May 10th, 2016
To the Associate Dean (Studies),
I am appealing to drop MATH 121 (F/W, 2015/16) and CHEM 211 (Fall, 2015). I am also appealing for credit standing in BIOL 243 (Fall, 2015) and GNDS 215 (Winter, 2016). I am appealing the Faculty's decision for these for ongoing reasons as well as temporary ones with poor timing.
To begin, I suffer from severe anxiety and depression. I have been suffering from this since I was young however I kept my feelings to myself until the end of high school and even some of the worst feeling until this year. This year was a particularly difficult year as I was trying different medications; one of which gave me flu like symptoms for a month causing me to leave/miss classes on several occasions to be sick. I began seeing a counsellor and my doctor regularly since last June and have had several appointments with Queen's counseling not having very good experiences each time.
During the first set of exams I wrote BIOL 202 and BIOL 243 and began noticing my anxiety was becoming increasingly worse. I was suicidal and found myself in the hospital the day before the nighttime CHEM 211 exam and having MATH 121 the next morning after caused me great stress. During the winter break, my parents both took time off work to be with me at home as I was so unstable. I began seeing my doctor again and after much deliberation about returning to finish the year, I returned to Queen¿¿s. The plan was to write math in April during the second exam period.
Second semester much better in terms of my mental health, I was happier and attending all of my classes no matter how I felt and I was trying very hard to get better. However, March was a very hard month. I became extremely depressed and began cutting again and feeling very worthless. Right before this exam period, March 27th, my grandfather had a heart attack and spent the last month in KGH on campus. My family members drove to Kingston every day to visit him and help and it was a very hard time for all of us. I also found out right before exams that I was not hired back to the summer camp where I have worked for 4 summers for all four months of the summer leaving me jobless. Trying to juggle all of this and to prepare for the first and second math exam as well as my other classes was too much.
I know that this is a lot to ask for. But something I think is important to know is that I am not the person to reach out and ask for help. I never want to inconvenience anyone or have people worry about me. For this reason it took a lot for me to seek out any type of medical attention or even talk to my parents, a fear that I had to force myself to overcome to get better. This year, I have learned that it is okay to not feel okay sometimes and that it is important to communicate. I have learned to accept how I am and how my brain chemistry works and I have several strategies already put in play to improve my academics and overall life. I have had several appointments with Vicky Andrews where she has helped me come up with a five-year plan allowing me to take a reduced course load with some catch up courses in the summer when necessary. Over the Christmas break I also met with Vicky to get me on the path to having a second teachable in English as opposed to Chemistry. In this plan I also qualify to have an ABQ in Chemistry and Social Sciences. I plan to take CHEM 211 in the fall and speak to the office about not repeating the lab section I passed already. I also put my placement for this summer off until next year so that I can have a break and to insure that I am stable before going into a three-week placement.
In terms of my life I quickly found a job for the summer as Ropes Director at Camp Tamakwa, which I am currently looking forward to and I am motivated and enthusiastic as I used to be. I have been on the same dosage of medication since the end of February and find that it has helped a lot. I also have been doing a lot of exercising and have ordered the book Mind over Mood to have as a resource for when I am feeling down. I feel extremely optimistic about my next year at Queen's and for the first time in a long time feel like myself again.
Thank-you and I hope you consider my appeal,
Anna McKinney
To the Associate Dean (Studies),
I am appealing to drop MATH 121 (F/W, 2015/16) and CHEM 211 (Fall, 2015). I am also appealing for credit standing in BIOL 243 (Fall, 2015) and GNDS 215 (Winter, 2016). I am appealing the Faculty's decision for these for ongoing reasons as well as temporary ones with poor timing.
To begin, I suffer from severe anxiety and depression. I have been suffering from this since I was young however I kept my feelings to myself until the end of high school and even some of the worst feeling until this year. This year was a particularly difficult year as I was trying different medications; one of which gave me flu like symptoms for a month causing me to leave/miss classes on several occasions to be sick. I began seeing a counsellor and my doctor regularly since last June and have had several appointments with Queen's counseling not having very good experiences each time.
During the first set of exams I wrote BIOL 202 and BIOL 243 and began noticing my anxiety was becoming increasingly worse. I was suicidal and found myself in the hospital the day before the nighttime CHEM 211 exam and having MATH 121 the next morning after caused me great stress. During the winter break, my parents both took time off work to be with me at home as I was so unstable. I began seeing my doctor again and after much deliberation about returning to finish the year, I returned to Queen¿¿s. The plan was to write math in April during the second exam period.
Second semester much better in terms of my mental health, I was happier and attending all of my classes no matter how I felt and I was trying very hard to get better. However, March was a very hard month. I became extremely depressed and began cutting again and feeling very worthless. Right before this exam period, March 27th, my grandfather had a heart attack and spent the last month in KGH on campus. My family members drove to Kingston every day to visit him and help and it was a very hard time for all of us. I also found out right before exams that I was not hired back to the summer camp where I have worked for 4 summers for all four months of the summer leaving me jobless. Trying to juggle all of this and to prepare for the first and second math exam as well as my other classes was too much.
I know that this is a lot to ask for. But something I think is important to know is that I am not the person to reach out and ask for help. I never want to inconvenience anyone or have people worry about me. For this reason it took a lot for me to seek out any type of medical attention or even talk to my parents, a fear that I had to force myself to overcome to get better. This year, I have learned that it is okay to not feel okay sometimes and that it is important to communicate. I have learned to accept how I am and how my brain chemistry works and I have several strategies already put in play to improve my academics and overall life. I have had several appointments with Vicky Andrews where she has helped me come up with a five-year plan allowing me to take a reduced course load with some catch up courses in the summer when necessary. Over the Christmas break I also met with Vicky to get me on the path to having a second teachable in English as opposed to Chemistry. In this plan I also qualify to have an ABQ in Chemistry and Social Sciences. I plan to take CHEM 211 in the fall and speak to the office about not repeating the lab section I passed already. I also put my placement for this summer off until next year so that I can have a break and to insure that I am stable before going into a three-week placement.
In terms of my life I quickly found a job for the summer as Ropes Director at Camp Tamakwa, which I am currently looking forward to and I am motivated and enthusiastic as I used to be. I have been on the same dosage of medication since the end of February and find that it has helped a lot. I also have been doing a lot of exercising and have ordered the book Mind over Mood to have as a resource for when I am feeling down. I feel extremely optimistic about my next year at Queen's and for the first time in a long time feel like myself again.
Thank-you and I hope you consider my appeal,
Anna McKinney
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: I do have documentation of my trips to the hospital from first semester but am unsure whether you want it or not.