Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: For the past four years, I have been struggling with my mental health. I have seen many different professionals and been on various medications to handle my depression and ADD. While there have been periods of success, my condition was severe and debilitating during second year university. This is something that many of my professors as well as Dr. Kawaja, the dean of Life Sciences, are aware of. Throughout second year I felt as though my antidepressants were no longer having their desired effect. My depression was debilitating and my brain was not able to function effectively. I experienced a severe lack of motivation and sometimes could not hand in assignments entirely. I had little to no energy and found myself sleeping or staying in bed for days on end. As a result I missed many classes, labs and tutorials. I constantly felt exhausted. I was unable to keep up with deadlines, manage my time, concentrate or work effectively. This made any studying and working extremely time consuming, difficult and frustrating. During periods where I was weaning myself onto new medications, my state of mind was altered entirely and working became impossible. This caused me to do poorly at school, which in turn caused me to feel even more depressed and discouraged. My academic difficulties led me to increase my ADD medication, a medication which negatively affected my mood and caused me to be withdrawn. This worsened my condition and created a rift between my friends and I. Following December break, I was unable to return to school for a couple of weeks. During these weeks, I met with a psychotherapist regularly who eventually convinced me to return to school. I had fallen even farther behind in my course work and once I returned, I felt even more alienated from my peers. I felt hopeless as I continued to struggle with this cycle. In January, my desperate search for help eventually led me to Dr. Kawaja, with whom I discussed my plans for the future. He informed me that with a letter of permission, it is possible to take courses at a different university while remaining a Queen¿¿s student. The University of Western Ontario is a school which is both closer to home and at which I have a strong support system of friends and family. I feel that attending UWO in the fall will provide me with the time and environment I need to recover. With the help of my psychiatrist and other medical professionals at home, I am currently beginning a new treatment plan.
I tried my best to push through the difficult time and complete the year but evidently my academics took a toll. I am a very conscientious student and my academics have always been of great importance to me. In high school, I received two awards of academic excellence and graduated with honors. These grades that I have received at Queen¿¿s are not a true reflection of my academic abilities.