Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,
I am an undergraduate student in my final year. I want to appeal the September deadline for submitting late and graded final course work. I requested a review of my Winter 2019 GPHY 351 grade in September 2019 but was unable to complete the essay by the September deadline. Since 2018, I have been immensely successful and participatory in my undergraduate courses. In 2018, I appealed a similar situation with Michelle Gallant, where I had to drop an entire semester of failed courses due to extenuating circumstances of domestic abuse which created an environment that did not foster academic success. I grew up in an emotionally and financially unstable home and have succeeded in university despite many psychological pitfalls. I am pleased to purport the stability of my academic career and demonstrate an improvement of my grades and renewal for course enthusiasm. Dr. Godlewska, my instructor, recognized my strides towards graduating with high marks, and graciously extended a deadline for my GPHY 351 final. Self-aware of my dysfunctionality with deadlines, I asked for an extension from Dr. Godlewska in Winter 2019 two weeks before the final essay was due, cognizant of the struggles of my mental health. She remained open to accepting it far past the duration for submission throughout the summer.
I had not been able to complete my final essay all summer, struggling with medically documented psychiatric mental illness, but I was hauntingly discontent with not having completed the final essay and receive a grade. I knew I had to complete this GPHY credit to graduate. Unable to sit comfortably with the incomplete grade, which did not reflect my highly engaged course participation during Dr. Godlewska's class, I wrote a comprehensive 15-page essay in my spare time last semester. I did this while balancing success in my active courses, achieving 5 A-level grades.
In October, I inquired with Dr. Godlewska if she would read my essay and mark it to finalize my effort in the class, if at all symbolically. Dr. Godlewska consented to an informal review, and additionally encouraged me to seek an appeal for the grade.
More critical than being a symbolic achievement, I know I require one more GPHY course to graduate this semester. I have wrenched my grades back from poor performance, currently with a 3.5 GPA towards my BEd, I want to continue my career as teacher candidate at Queen's in 2020. I have been planning to graduate since 2014. Vicky Andrews of the Department of Education has been a longstanding support in focusing my unique situation on graduation. Early in my undergraduate career I have documented my struggle with extenuating circumstances. However, in the past few years I have shown myself and been documenting achieving great bounds towards success - despite and in the spirit of overcoming these obstacles.
If I do not acquire a grade for this course, it will be an additional financial burden on my mother who has single-handedly financed my undergraduate career for this year only. Reaching retirement, she would be unable to support an additional year of undergraduate to complete one course in Fall 2020. I do not have student loan debt, but funding housing and enrollment for an additional semester without putting my mother under financial strain would require putting my future financial stability at risk. Appealing my GPHY 351 grade with the full consent of Dr. Godlewska would continue and complete my stable academic timeline. Knowing I am the path to graduating this semester will ensure that I am not mentally and emotionally preoccupied with the repercussions of having to fund an additional semester.