Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing to have my grades in the courses ECON 110 and HIST 124 excused from my transcript. I had a very difficult time my first year at Queen¿¿s. For the last several years, I have struggled with anxiety which sometimes affects my ability to live a normal day-to-day life. This winter semester I fell into a rut; I was struggling to leave my room, not eating or taking care of myself, stopped going to the gym, pulled away from my friends and doing the bare minimum academically. At the time I did not care about anything and was just trying to get through each day best I could. Sadly, I felt as if the future was hopeless and was spending all of my time in bed.

I arrived late for the start of the school year and missed the majority of orientation which, paired with my anxiety, caused me to be alone most of the time. Attending classes early in the semester, I would wear headphones in order to minimize the amount of social interaction I would have to do. This was mainly due to the anxiety I would feel when talking to someone whom I did not know. If I had to pinpoint the start of the downward spiral it would be after the February reading week. I don¿¿t know exactly what about the reading week it was but perhaps seeing many of my best friends, my brother and my cousins and leaving them to go back to being alone was tough. I was already struggling some prior to this but perhaps this was all my psyche could take. I am from the Caribbean so this winter was especially hard for me as I am not accustomed to the dark dreariness that winter brings.

I started not attending a few classes, then a few turned into a lot and towards the end of the semester I was not attending any classes. My anxiety was so bad that I would wear headphones anytime I had to leave my room and would place an ear to the door prior to leaving to ensure no one was in the hall before walking out the door. My Dad was visiting Toronto In early March and while talking to me on the phone he became concerned. He had a longtime friend who lived in Kingston who knew a psychology professor at Queens, Dr. Dean Tripp. He was very kind and offered to see me once a week to help me with what I was struggling with. I went once with my Dad because he forced me but I couldn¿¿t bring myself to attend any other sessions on my own due to my anxiety.

At this point I felt like I was in a depressed state. As mentioned above, my mental state caused me to stop going to classes as well as not doing the required course readings and as a result my grades in these courses suffered. I believe these two courses were much lower than the other ones due to the type of course. Economics and History both take a great deal of studying in order to be successful. The other three courses were more opinion oriented courses and having a strong background in English and writing (achieving and A in English at Ridley), I was able to see my way through these more essay-based courses. Since I wasn¿¿t attending class, I was unable to keep up with the content in all my classes and fell miles behind. As I fell further and further behind, the pressure and stress started to grow which caused me to hit rock bottom around exam time. Now that I am back home, my parents are getting me the help that I need and I am doing much better than I was during March and April. I am adamant that I want to return to school in September and will put my best foot forward academically. I have made this commitment to my parents but most importantly to myself. I know I am better than this. I am currently in communication with academic counsellors at Queens regarding my pIan selection and rectifying this unfortunate year. In fact, they are the ones that advised me to contact your office for any academic consideration. Going forward I have every intention to take advantage of the helpful resources that Queen¿¿s offers in order to stay on top of my school work.


Sincerely,
Ethan Bento