Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: The appeal is being submitted for consideration to appeal grades impacted through the extenuating circumstances of mental health issues through the Winter 2013-Winter 2015 study year periods, specificially the courses as listed on my application. I am appealing to have these courses changed to ¿¿Dropped¿ past the academic deadline, instead of failures.

Through this time period, I would like to note I did receive one or two courses with A or B-level grades. Speaking to this, my ability to function well was strongly impacted, but my ambition was not. I aimed to do well yet was incapable of doing so, able to focus my energies on solely a course or two each year. This was by merit of granted extensions and course structures that places emphasis on in-class exams rather than assignments. I would argue these courses reflected my desire to do well, but not necessarily my full-ability to function overall ¿¿ luck in format lending itself to minor successes despite my extenuating circumstances.

Within this two-year time frame - in my second and third years here at Queen¿¿s - I began, through an amalgamation of personal stress, familial strain, and genetics, to develop undiagnosed mental health issues, which deeply impacted my ability to function in fundamental daily sense, let alone academically. At the time, I was living at home with my mother while studying.

As my illness became progressively worse, I was taken to Kingston General Hospital Emergency Care, where I received psychiatric help and, following this, was referred and admitted into the Hotel Dieu Early Psychosis Intervention Program known as ¿¿Heads Up¿. In this program, I was receiving help from a Psychologist, who offered therapy and prescribed proper medications, as well as a Case Worker, who helped me focus on healing through practical goals, mental health activities, et cetera. I was diagnosed as suffering with high level anxiety, depression, and symptoms of early onset psychosis, including paranoia.

As I received help through this program over the course of roughly two years, I continued with my classes, only to struggle with my own capacity to function and academic stress, in addition my mental health. Upon receiving failures for near every course, I felt it appropriate to take a year off of classes and focus on self-care. From Fall 2015 to Winter 2016, I took an academic leave-of-absence, left the Heads Up Program, and switched from a part-time to a full-time position at Pan Chancho Bakery and Café. Over the course of that year, I progressively, albeit slowly, regained my capability to function at my former, ambitious capacity.

By September 2016, I was no longer on any medication and found myself excited to return and complete my degree. The return to classes was a learning curve, as my time away from academia saw additional difficulty in keeping up. My grades from the Fall-Winter 2016-17 period range, showing the initial struggle to resettle into the workload and mode of academic writing ¿¿ which I am not contesting as those are outside of my mental health experiences ¿¿
but they also reflect the capability to do well with B¿¿s and A¿¿s present. This explanation aims to underscore the process by which I lapsed on processing both my need for appeal ¿¿ too intensely focused on keeping up rather than looking to my transcript itself ¿¿ and the circumstances which lead to its necessity.

Beginning this year, the third technical year of my degree program, I see the end of my undergraduate degree and hope to follow academia into the Masters and, perhaps, Doctoral levels. I aim to follow this academic ambition and passion despite the severe academic setbacks of mental health. As my mental state sees renewed academic dedication, taking form of future-oriented thinking rather than daily presentism, these applications seem fast approaching. In order to foster my academic experience, I have lowered my workload in the form of a part-time Work Study experience at the Agnes Etherington Arts Centre. Additionally, I have taken on a voluntary position as President of the Board of Directors as Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. In both of these I believe I have excelled. Throughout this term, I have taken on these extracurricular activities with relative ease and, paired with this, have received exclusively A¿¿s on all marked assignments (in addition to proper attendance). In this, I feel my current state and academic capability is addressed, and I can easily see such marks extrapolated into my grades for all courses this term.

I hope through the process of this explanation, my ability to work towards a strong GPA, as well as the ability to appeal grades and their respective deadlines is recognized as also being impacted. I hope then that the opportunity to my grades from Winter 2013 to Winter 2015 due to extenuating circumstances is deemed sufficient.