Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 4107
Submitted: January 10, 2018 at 8:12:22 PM
First Name: Ami
Last Name: Sangster
Student Number: 10103620
Email: 13as3@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BCH
Plan: BMCO
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Code: ENIN200
Term: Fall
Year: 2017
Petition Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor's Name: Greg Bavington
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: January 10, 2018
Dear Associate Dean,
I'm appealing for credit standing in ENIN200.
In the fall semester I faced many barriers in the way of pursuing my education.
The underlying problem is my struggle with anxiety and depression which has been going on for the past few years and I've been unable to find a solution that works well for me. This makes it very difficult for me to present my work to an audience and be very involved with other students. While this is not normally a huge part of my education but with an entrepreneur class based heavily on presentations it definitely impacted my grade.
The more pressing problem I dealt with this past semester was my living situation. One of the ways I cope with my emotional problems is by having a caring and stable environment. For the school year of 2016-2017 that environment was one where I lived with my boyfriend and we took care of each other. In mid September 2017 he lost a close family member and a few weeks later he also lost his job. By October he started working nights full time which made it very difficult for me to sleep through the night which increased my anxiety and greatly impacted my academic performance. I was constantly going back and forth between catching up on classes and catching up on sleep. I ended up dropping CISC333 to cope with the extra time I needed to put towards taking care of myself. With our completely opposite schedules it became impossible to properly care for ourselves, never mind taking care of each other, and with that imbalance in our relationship we began to fight constantly. This took up a lot of time and energy, and took its tole on my emotional state and my academic performance. I was now going back and forth between catching up with school and fighting, having very little time to sleep and take care of myself. By the end of October I knew I couldn't keep living with my boyfriend and be able to complete the semester, so I moved back to Toronto to live with my Mom. I spent about a week there to recover from the distressing situation that quickly became all consuming. I then began commuting form Toronto to Kingston so I could attend the classes that I could not miss. I communicated with my professors and my doctor to get the appropriate documentation in order to make sure I would be able to complete and hopefully pass my remaining courses.
Thanks to the support and understanding of my professors, I was able to pass all my courses. Fortunately I had enough prior knowledge for the classes in my degree program (CISC320, CISC365) so I was able to get fairly decent grades. But I took Entrepreneurship (ENIN200) purely because I'm interested in the topic and I have no business knowledge. I could not keep up with all the new content with everything that was going on, so my mark suffered and in turn, so did my GPA. To avoid problems when applying for post graduate studies or employment, I would really appreciate if the ENIN200 grade could be removed from my transcript.
During exams I was able to find a new place to live and I was able to move in just before winter semester classes began, as I'm planning to press on with my education. Moving forward I'm working towards recreating that stable and caring environment that I need in this new home where I have an older couple and another student living close by. I also plan to take the summer of 2018 off of school and full-time work to talk with medical professionals and focus on my mental health, so the next school year could go even better.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal,
Sincerely,
Ami Sangster
10103620
A quick explanation about the provided documentation:
My doctor filled out two forms, as he found that both apply to my situation and left it up to the school to decide which, if not both, is applicable. The forms attached to this appeal were from an application I found at the end of the semester for a grade adjustment that I submitted to the academic office. However, that application did not work out, as I think it is only applicable during the semester and it was submitted too late. If this documentation is insufficient, please let me know what you're looking for.
Dear Associate Dean,
I'm appealing for credit standing in ENIN200.
In the fall semester I faced many barriers in the way of pursuing my education.
The underlying problem is my struggle with anxiety and depression which has been going on for the past few years and I've been unable to find a solution that works well for me. This makes it very difficult for me to present my work to an audience and be very involved with other students. While this is not normally a huge part of my education but with an entrepreneur class based heavily on presentations it definitely impacted my grade.
The more pressing problem I dealt with this past semester was my living situation. One of the ways I cope with my emotional problems is by having a caring and stable environment. For the school year of 2016-2017 that environment was one where I lived with my boyfriend and we took care of each other. In mid September 2017 he lost a close family member and a few weeks later he also lost his job. By October he started working nights full time which made it very difficult for me to sleep through the night which increased my anxiety and greatly impacted my academic performance. I was constantly going back and forth between catching up on classes and catching up on sleep. I ended up dropping CISC333 to cope with the extra time I needed to put towards taking care of myself. With our completely opposite schedules it became impossible to properly care for ourselves, never mind taking care of each other, and with that imbalance in our relationship we began to fight constantly. This took up a lot of time and energy, and took its tole on my emotional state and my academic performance. I was now going back and forth between catching up with school and fighting, having very little time to sleep and take care of myself. By the end of October I knew I couldn't keep living with my boyfriend and be able to complete the semester, so I moved back to Toronto to live with my Mom. I spent about a week there to recover from the distressing situation that quickly became all consuming. I then began commuting form Toronto to Kingston so I could attend the classes that I could not miss. I communicated with my professors and my doctor to get the appropriate documentation in order to make sure I would be able to complete and hopefully pass my remaining courses.
Thanks to the support and understanding of my professors, I was able to pass all my courses. Fortunately I had enough prior knowledge for the classes in my degree program (CISC320, CISC365) so I was able to get fairly decent grades. But I took Entrepreneurship (ENIN200) purely because I'm interested in the topic and I have no business knowledge. I could not keep up with all the new content with everything that was going on, so my mark suffered and in turn, so did my GPA. To avoid problems when applying for post graduate studies or employment, I would really appreciate if the ENIN200 grade could be removed from my transcript.
During exams I was able to find a new place to live and I was able to move in just before winter semester classes began, as I'm planning to press on with my education. Moving forward I'm working towards recreating that stable and caring environment that I need in this new home where I have an older couple and another student living close by. I also plan to take the summer of 2018 off of school and full-time work to talk with medical professionals and focus on my mental health, so the next school year could go even better.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal,
Sincerely,
Ami Sangster
10103620
A quick explanation about the provided documentation:
My doctor filled out two forms, as he found that both apply to my situation and left it up to the school to decide which, if not both, is applicable. The forms attached to this appeal were from an application I found at the end of the semester for a grade adjustment that I submitted to the academic office. However, that application did not work out, as I think it is only applicable during the semester and it was submitted too late. If this documentation is insufficient, please let me know what you're looking for.
Documentation
Professional Letter: Queens-verification-17.pdf
Document: queens personal-17.pdf