Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

I am a 2nd year computer science student at Queen¿¿s University.

I am writing to you today to appeal the decision for me to withdraw from Queen¿¿s University for one year. During the year, there were many extenuating circumstances which significantly hindered my ability to complete my academic work to the fullest of my ability. Unfortunately, most of my obstacles stem from severe mental health issues; whether it be my mental health, or that of my close friends and family. During this school year, I helped my close friend and fellow Queen¿¿s student Lauren McCaffrey recover from her suicide attempt and helped to provide her with the essential resources Queen¿¿s offers, such as counselling. Lauren is comfortable with me providing this information to you because she personally saw how much strain it put on me. Following her attempted suicide, I concentrated most of my efforts towards ensuring she would not endanger herself again which led me to miss class, as well as complete academic work quickly without taking the steps to make sure it was done to the best of my potential - my main concern was focusing on Lauren and trying to help her in any way I possibly could. Her personal story is with ArtSci Academic Consideration if you wish to follow up, but I can proudly say that along with my help and the help of resources at Queen¿¿s, she is much healthier and happier.
However, Lauren was not the only important person in my life dealing with serious issues at the time. My first cousin¿¿s parents have asked me to watch over my little cousin to make sure that she doesn¿¿t cut herself or attempt suicide, as she was recently diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. Helping my cousin came with a lot of pressure from my family because she became my responsibility in their eyes and would frequently make sure I was doing everything I could to assist her through the many obstacles of being a grade 12 student whose dream is to go to University.
Additionally, my sister, someone who is very close to me, is suffering from the same diagnosis. I help her with everyday tasks when she is overwhelmed by the symptoms that come along with depression. Living in a world of suicide and depression has greatly affected my mental health to the point of giving me the same mindset as the people I¿¿ve been trying to help. I felt largely responsible for the lives of those closest to me and therefore my academic work suffered greatly because even when I went to class, my mind was elsewhere. The stress and anxiety that I experienced was considerable, especially as a full time student who was also working part time at Fix My Pod in order to pay tuition.
Unfortunately, these obstacles did not help me raise my GPA from how low it was in first year. As you may know, first year is a time to figure out how to succeed in university, and it is a big transition from high school which many people struggle with. I struggled to the point of having a GPA as low as 0.77 overall, so second year was much harder for me. With that being said, I believe I have shown a considerable amount of progression in my academics because my GPA has since gone from a 0.97 (in first year, second semester), to a 1.57 in the first semester of second year which I brought up to be a 2.12 GPA in second year second semester. There were 2 courses I failed in first year that I also had re-taken and improved upon which also benefited my overall average. An example of how I¿¿ve improved is in Discrete Math 1: I received a D-, but in Discrete Math 2, an even harder course, I finished with a C which I was very proud of because I have always struggled with grasping the key concepts.