Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson,
My name is Siddith Chattopadhyay, and I am a first-year international student who lives in the United States. The purpose of this letter is to appeal the requirement to withdraw for one year, as well as hopefully drop my failed courses. I am writing to you to inform you of the extenuating circumstances that led to my academic performance this past year. Additionally, I hope to outline the steps I have taken to rectify the situation and prevent myself from being in this situation again and give you more confidence that waiving this is a reasonable step to take.
This past year has been obstacle after obstacle for me, physically, emotionally, and mentally. To start, I¿¿ve had to move by myself nearly 10 times in the past schoolyear, doing so while dealing with a leg injury I sustained during my first few weeks in Canada. This was a complicated and arduous process, but I did my best to make sure this would not get in the way of my academic efforts. However, this was just the start of the more detrimental challenges to come. I contracted Covid-19 while at Queen¿¿s, and that added a new set of challenges, as I dealt with coronavirus and some lasting effects. I started developing more anxiety during this time, as I was all alone through all of this. I was not able to return home from August to December or have any family near me during these times due to border regulations, and after the injury and Covid, anxiety and feelings of isolation started building. I tried to focus on pushing through and succeeding to the best of my ability academically, but then I was hit with another mental toll. My friend Olivia passed away in November of 2020. Someone I¿¿d known for years, and to make things worse, again I could not return for her funeral or memorial services, nor be around our friends or any support during this time. I had never been faced with such strong mental battles and feelings of depression than those I¿¿ve had this past year.
I was finally able to go home in the end of December and was planning to come back to Kingston and start things fresh, only to find out that Ontario¿¿s lockdown had been extended from January into February. When I got home, I was approved to get vaccinated, and after having contracted Covid along with the fear that came from it, my family and I decided to put a priority on getting vaccinated before anything else. That meant I had to complete second semester from home, which brought a new set of challenges, especially during the pandemic. All these obstacles were exacerbated by the sudden and unexpected death of another friend of mine, Robbie, merely a week after I returned home, a former lacrosse teammate and jazz band member, someone whose family I¿¿d known since middle school. At this point, all the different setbacks caught up to me, and exhaustion mentally and physically became overwhelming. I started finding myself unable to perform in class, lacking the resolve to keep moving forward in classes as everything else that had happened weighed on me. Being the son of immigrants and the first in my family to go through the undergraduate process in Canada, or North America for that matter, I¿¿ve always put lots of pressure on myself to live up to their sacrifices and seeing myself struggle academically amplified that anxiety and depression I found myself feeling. My parents also could not help in pointing me to resources to lean on because they did not know about them, and I ended up feeling like I was drowning and that things were hopeless. I managed to keep pushing forward in my economics class, as it has been my intended major my whole life, and seeing myself struggling elsewhere, I thought it was smarter to try and focus my best efforts on doing well in that class than to perform poorly at the cost of trying to rectify everything else after it was already too late.
Eventually, I realized that I could not let things keep going the way they were. I had to take responsibility for the pitfalls I found myself in and address them proactively. I saw myself losing the academic momentum that I had been working to create for so long leading up to Queen¿¿s, and I put it upon myself to make a real change. I started talking to Arts and Sciences Registration to figure out where things were at in my degree plan and start strategizing about how to take on second year the right way, and to find out resources at Queen¿¿s that I was not aware of but wanted to start taking advantage of. They informed me about Queen¿¿s mental health support, academic advisors, and other resources I could use at Queen¿¿s; and in writing this letter, I¿¿ve already started meeting with an advisor. I also found a therapist to start meeting with, to help keep myself on this forward trajectory and prevent myself from falling into the trap that I found myself in prior. Because I was not used to being in the place I was mentally, it took me a long time to even recognize that something was truly wrong and learn that I could benefit from talking to a therapist, advisor, and other support groups at Queen¿¿s. In addition, I have a secured lease in Kingston for the next year, and will have a consistent place to live, allowing me to prevent any of the issues and distractions that came from moving as much as I did, and my vaccination had also alleviated the fears I developed after getting coronavirus. No longer having to worry about getting vaccinated, having a house leased at Queen¿¿s, as well as not having to live alone in Kingston, will also allow me to move more freely between home and school and prevent both the isolation I felt in Kingston and the situation I found myself in second semester; being stuck away from school.
Only once I started trying to address these issues and do this research did I learn that people such as academic advisors even existed and that could help me work through these problems and minimize the effect it had on my schoolwork. I also applied and was accepted for an internship at a hedge fund back in the United States, to keep learning and applying myself in the field of economics and keep this positive change going. Should my appeal be granted, and I am therefore able to, I also intend to take at least one university-level course this summer once my internship ends, which I also discussed with my advisor, and start second year this fall in a strong academic mindset and ready to perform at my potential. I¿¿ve also written a detailed academic plan, using the template and information I found through Queen¿¿s Arts and Sciences page, highlighting both the causes of my academic issues this year as well as the steps and resources I will be employing to address them. Some of these include regular meetings with an advisor, employing time management strategies and utilizing department listed tutors, and continuing appointments with my therapist throughout the year as well as potentially utilizing the mental health resources available at Queen¿¿s. I¿¿ve had a meeting with an academic advisor and after having gone through the plan in detail, have had it approved and well received.
Taking a year off would be less beneficial to my academic success than my returning to studies this year. It would stop me from building on the progress I¿¿ve already made and will continue making, and the best way for me to progress is to start using my academic plan and strategies for success as soon as possible, and the rigidity and structure of a full-time school schedule will allow me to keep my mind sharp and maintain the skills I¿¿ve been working on; a conclusion my advisor and I both came to. Taking a year off would also be a detriment to me and my family financially, and after the difficult year it has been financially due to Covid, that is an even stronger burden than normal. Furthermore, the difficulties I had this year are not those of a reoccurring nature, and as I¿¿ve started to handle them, they are not barriers that will be ongoing this fall and moving forward. The best way for myself and my academic plan to succeed would be to continue my education and have the chance to work at my academic caliber. I have already identified and started working to move forward from what happened this year and taking a year off would add new challenges, rather than solve past ones and allow me to keep progressing.
In summation, I am writing to you to appeal this decision because I believe that I faced extenuating circumstances this past year, circumstances that will not be a problem again now that I¿¿ve taken the necessary steps to address them and have set up a plan to be productive about addressing any new challenges should they arise in the future. Below I have attached my academic plan, a receipt from my therapist¿¿s office, an obituary of my friend Liv and an obituary of my friend Robbie. If you would like to speak with me directly or have any questions about my circumstances or plan, please do not hesitate to contact me (I will be attaching my phone number and Queen¿¿s email below). If you need me to find any additional documentation, I will do my best to find whatever you need. I sincerely hope you give me the chance to come back this fall, implement my plan and strategies, demonstrate my determination to succeed, and be the best Queen¿¿s student I can be this second year.


Thank you for your understanding and time,
Siddith

Reachable at:
Email: 19src4@queensu.ca
Cell: 973-908-4131