Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bérnard,
I, Hussein Gamal Khadr, am writing this letter following the receivable of the approval of the 21 or one term deadline. In this letter, I highlight the extenuating circumstances that played a role in my academic decline within the 2015/2016 academic year. The two things I am appealing for are as followed:
i) Drop late (SPANP10 W2016 2015/2016)
ii) Credit Standing (CLST129 2015/2016) (ARAB100 W2016 2015/2016)
In September of 2015, I began my studies at Queen¿¿s as the first person in my family to attend university. The transition was of utmost difficulty as I left home and sustained a significant injury to my acromioclavicular joint when I arrived. A crucial factor in attending Queen¿¿s was the extracurricular athletics that I would be able to participate in, and so this injury leads to the deterioration of my mental health. I am an avid athlete and sports has always acted as my escape from the difficult times I experienced, and so my motivation for daily activities such as to attend class, complete homework, go to practice and engage in social activities declined.
In addition to the anxiety I developed after this injury, I also received upsetting news about two family members only several weeks after arriving at Queen¿¿s. My grandmother Azizi Kadoura was diagnosed with colon cancer and my grandfather Mohammed Daher experienced a life-threating heart attack, which forced him to undergo a triple bypass surgery.
When I was seven, my grandparents stepped in to replace my father who passed from lung cancer. When he passed, he left my unemployed mother with three young children aged seven, five, three, and another yet to be born. This state of shambles that my mother was left in was one of the few things that I remember from childhood, and being told that I was the man of the house and that my family was my responsibility demonstrates the heavy weight that was placed on my shoulders since the early stages of my life. My grandparents¿¿ importance comes from their endless kindness, shown through having us children spend almost every day in their house, helping us get ready for school when my mother had to leave for work at 6:30 AM, or from picking us up from school when my mother was too busy working to put food on the table. They filled the void that my father had left, both emotionally and physically. When the news came that they both had experienced life-threating conditions, it was enough to push me over the edge and take all motivation from me.
This further developed into not being able to leave my room or eat healthy, as nothing was of any relevance to me after learning that I had nearly lost another a parent to cancer. However, it was toughest to see the emotional distress it caused my mother, and so I returned home to Ottawa weekly to support her. My grandparents¿¿ illnesses forced her to take time off from work to care for them, and so my weekends were spent caring for my sisters while my mother focused on my grandparents. I started to experience anxiety and depression-like symptoms more often, as well as sleep deprivation. I felt like I was being torn between two worlds, and I had no idea what to focus on. The thought of losing them sent shivers through my core, and unfortunately by this point school was not my priority. I held the belief that missing class was an inconsequential act when in reality, it was the opposite. Ultimately this situation resulted in losing marks from being absent, missing weeks of content, and the inevitable plummeting of my grades.
Fortunately, I am now headed in the right direction by ensuring that my past mistakes are not repeated. This began by accepting that my mental health was not up to par, and so I met with a doctor who explained to me that the anxiety and depression I had been experiencing was not something to be taken lightly. I also met with an academic advisor and a counselor who were both vital in giving me the resources I needed to get on the path to success.
I am grateful that I have experienced this amount of hardship; I have gained insight, knowledge, and awareness of myself and who I am. I have discovered how I need to approach future difficult situations and I now have the promise of an easier future, with regards to maintaining my mental health. This experience made me realize the importance of my education and reignited my passion for both learning and athletics, which I had thought to be gone. I have no doubts that my academics at Queen¿¿s will go upwards from here.
Thank you for your consideration,
Hussein Gamal Khadr