Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I, Kristoffer Benasa, am appealing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences decision that I must withdraw from Queens University for a minimum of 1 year. There were factors throughout the school year that affected my academics and work ethic. The 2016-2017 school year was my first year of university and I had limited knowledge about Queens involvement with online method such as the use of OnQ and Solus. It took me time to adjust to the new method of gaining school information because in high school the majority of the information was given to you in person. There were also psychological challenges that I faced during the year. The first challenged I faced was the transition from living and being with family in nearly all hours of the day to literally seeing them once every few weeks. I am very family oriented to where I see family members almost all the time. I live with my mother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, and uncle in Toronto. Move-In Day was the last time I saw family for nearly four weeks, which I was certainly not use to. During those few weeks I felt homesick, but my mother figured rather than going home, I should stay to adapt to the new environment. During those weeks, I contemplated going back home to Toronto and going to school there, but I was given such a great opportunity to study here at Queens University. Therefore, my mother and I decided that I should just stay instead of transfer to a school in Toronto. This affected me academically because I lacked in motivation since I was consistently thinking about my family and the urgency to go back home. I eventually hit a point where it affected my sleep and the way I prioritized. In the beginning of the school year, for weeks I rarely went out to socialize because there was not a single person I knew from the past who attended Queens, compared to other students who knew each other from previous events. Feeling like I didn't belong lead me to become homesick and eventually caused me to lose motivation. I was constantly upset during the day which affected my sleep because I would stay up late at night thinking about family problems.The lack of sleep caused me to be very fatigue during my classes which affected my participation and note taking throughout the day. Within a few weeks, I finally got the chance to go home, but the second I arrived back at residence, the same routine began due to how I missed being in the environment I grew up in. I thought going home would change the way I've been feeling and help gain motivation to do well in school. Instead, the routine of me being upset from being away from family and losing sleep worsened throughout the rest of the year. Another psychological challenge I faced was a high level of stress. As many factors started to add up, I was at a high level of stress after the winter break. With the family problems and school workload adding up, I was limited with time because there were many problems going on. This situation affected me academically because I was not able to concentrate fully and reach my full potential when doing school related assignments. There were two big family problems that were currently going on during this time of school year. Firstly, I found out my grandmother who partook in raising me as a child was diagnosed with breast cancer and secondly my closest aunt and uncle were planning a divorce. One thing that made the situation tougher is that I am really close to my cousins and I treat them as my actual siblings. They would constantly talk to me about the situation they were in and how it affected them negatively. Being family oriented, these two scenarios affected me significantly because there wasn't anything I can do for them except pray, and be there for them for hospital visits. This then caused me to be very stressed during this time as I had many school assignments to complete. With the many assignments, I was not able to show my full potential due to personal situations that were currently going on. Lastly, I just want to state that I did not receive any warning throughout the year about my academic standing therefore I was unaware of the situation I am in now. I understand the reason for the request of withdrawal for one year, however I have learned to love Queen's, and am willing to put in as much effort as I can in the next school year to reach my full potential. I hope you accept this as my letter of appeal, thank you for your consideration and opportunity.