Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Monday, May 11, 2020

Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson (Associate Dean- Academic)

I am writing to you this letter because I am appealing to drop RELS 322 which I took during the Fall 2019 term. During that term I had to take 6 courses because it was brought to my attention that Law 201 and Law 204 do not count towards my BAH degree and therefore I needed to catch up on my credits. I thought that I would be able to handle this heavy course load, but it only became more stressful and overwhelming as time went on. I focused all my hard work and attention on my DEVS courses with the goal of applying for a Master's in Global Development. Unfortunately, everything in my life slowly began to spiral because I was trying to juggle my academics, my school activities such as: Kaleidoscope, Heart 4 Heart, and QMCF, as well as my personal life, since my grandpa became very ill in a short period of time and passed away. All of this began affecting my mental and physical health to the point where I began having bad anxiety attacks during the night and I was afraid to sleep due to the fear of having another one. This became an on-going cycle which resulted in a lack of sleep, malnutrition, a lot of stress, and no energy. Besides all of this, one of the biggest challenges throughout my academic career was learning how to multi-task and remaining on top of my school work while struggling with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I never allowed my learning disability to get in the way of my success, which is why I constantly followed my schedule, and kept myself organized by writing out all my deadlines. However, under the extenuating circumstances aforementioned, I struggled to succeed in this course. I started isolating myself from the real-world and the only time I would leave my house was to attend my 3-hour lecture for RELS 322 on Monday's and my 3-hour tutorial for DEVS 492 on Tuesday's. I did attend all of the in-person yoga tutorials we had on Tuesday evening, and I completed all of the assignments in the course, although they were not completed to the best of my efforts. The reason I would like to appeal this grade (D-), besides the fact that it drastically affects my overall GPA, is because I genuinely believe that it is a false representation of my academic abilities. I do not want this one grade to affect my chance of completing a higher degree back at Queen's University because it doesn't show who I am as a student. Over the past four years, I have slowly learned from my past academic mistakes, and improved all my weaknesses such as; prioritizing my school work and completing it prior to the due dates, organizing all of my assignments and staying on top of my due dates by having them written on my agenda, as well as learning how to balance my academics and personal life. Moving forward to the Winter term of 2020, I had time to come up with a new plan of learning how to juggle my academics, my school activities and my personal life, as well as learning how to deal with my grief. I went to seek help from my family doctor and she gave me new coping mechanisms, and I began taking my ADD medication on a daily basis as opposed to taking it whenever I felt was necessary. This was a very dark and helpless time that affected me in many areas of my life and I would genuinely appreciate this grade being removed off my transcript, so I could achieve my dream of completing a Master's in Global Development and working for the United Nations. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

Rita Jurji (20005016)
Phone Number: 416-419-1580