Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing to return to studies after a requirement to withdraw for three years has lapsed.

Previously, I was unable to focus on my study due to the passing of a relative and the depression I was going through. I also suspected that I had suffered from a psychological disorder for the inability to focus during a study session. Instead of mindlessly trying to get back to school, I took some time off and seriously considered other options, including giving up academia completely and getting a job unrelated to the things I learned. I took personal trainer classes and tests, and tried becoming one myself because I was very into fitness. However, after some time, I decided that I was not good with selling, which was a big part of the career to my surprise.

Frustrated and not knowing what to do with my life, I looked at the programming course that I failed twice, Java. I decided to pay for a boot camp to learn this language that I had so much trouble with. I used to blame the professor for being too fast and unclear in class because I could not understand a thing, but now I think the problem was that I had no programming experience at all before coming to Queen's. I went to high school in BC and even the math was totally different - I had never heard of a matrix (not the movie) before, and I spent this whole time trying to catch up. It was difficult and I was not prepared for it, and my other psychological issues did not help either. I spent a few months learning this language and its related technical skills such as html, css, javascript, database and other frameworks. By the time I finished, I was well-equipped to find a job as a programmer. For two years, I worked as a software developer for a company that worked with biometrics, forensics and DNA database. My job was to apply the knowledge of DNA to make software helping the forensic scientists or our client with their daily tasks. I learned much about the algorithms for DNA matching. For instance, given the DNA data of a father and a son, I could write a program to calculate the likelihood that they are related. I could calculate the likelihood that a blood stain at the crime scene comes from the person in custody. I could do many interesting tasks.

Almost all the developers at the company only had computer science skills. They could do the required work, but they could not understand the biology and biostatistics behind the tools they made. I was able to explain and make suggestions. My managers and the CEO even gave me a lot of research tasks involving reading and learning from an excessive amount of scientific journals and other sources. Not only did I work with the programming, but I contributed to the science, which the company lacked. I was really proud and I appreciated the domain knowledge that set me apart from the others. I felt fortunate having this biomedical computing program. I knew so much even though I barely scratched the surface. I felt more confident than ever about myself since high school.

My three-year hold at Queen's is about to come to an end. I think I am well-equipped to finish the degree. My work experience has made learning much easier. I am learning Python at the time with the goal of tackling AI this summer. I am not having a difficult time learning this time around because Java and Python share a lot of similarities. My experience has also touched some courses that I have yet to take such as database structure. I may not know the underlying concepts, but I know how to use it and should be able to learn faster. I really look forward to coming back to Queen's and I sincerely hope I will be approved.