Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello Associate Dean (Academic), my name is Caroline Salomon Wong, I¿¿m a half French, half Singaporean, international first year student. I am appealing to drop PSYCH100 (Fall and Winter 2020) and WRIT125 (Winter 2020) and for Credit standing for PHIL 111 (Fall and Winter) and FILM 110 (Fall and Winter) due to extenuating circumstances. My father has bipolar and has had depression and severe anxiety and I recently found out that he has ADD too. I think I¿¿ve been dealing with mental health issues for a while without necessarily knowing it- specifically anxiety and depression. My parents live in different countries, my father in Malaysia and my mother is a flight attendant based in Hong Kong. When my parents were busy with work I spent time doing extracurriculars and had many different philippino nannies. I was never really close to my parents. I did high school in boarding, in Victoria, BC. I¿¿ve always had trouble concentrating in class, with organization and with time management but I didn¿¿t think anything was wrong. I was under the impression that I was just lazy and scatterbrained because of the way I misplace things and my clumsiness. My parents split up near the end of high school and announced it to my siblings and I on a family vacation. It was quite messy and mentally tiring. My boarding houseparents noticed a change in my demeanour and set up a meeting with a school councillor. I talked to her twice and it helped but we never talked about ADHD or getting me tested. At this point I didn¿¿t know about my dad¿¿s ADD and my grades were fine so I didn¿¿t get help because I viewed it as something shameful because my Asian side of the family viewed therapy as something for sick people. I graduated high school online in June 2020, at my grandparents house in France due to Covid19. Whenever I spend too much time with family I get anxious and eventually have breakdowns. I then came to Queens where I met my canmate who has Aspergers. Near the end of fall term she was upset I didn¿¿t choose to live with her next fall and she attacked me and ripped my sweater. She then started yelling at my friends and one of them had to wrestle a knife out of her hands when she went back to her room and yelled that she¿¿d kill herself. I was shocked and talked to the don because I cared about her. After that I got my own room and spent most of my days in the dark on my laptop. It started taking longer to do simple tasks, I had many panic attacks which made it hard to get things done and it was harder to recall words and clearly format sentences. It was also very hard to prioritize because of my anxiety and extremely hard to get out of bed because of my depression which also slowed my cognitive processing. Covid19 made everything worse and there's also the fact that I haven't seen my parents in over 2 years. I Also started spending time with the wrong people and didn¿¿t realize I was slowly spiralling. Doing schoolwork was difficult for me partially because of my anxiety, communicating with professors was difficult. When I left residence in March I went to stay with an old boarding school friend who graduated before me. I slowly noticed the signs of depression and he gave me an ultimatum; to be with him or he¿¿d end his life. He did this knowing I had a long distance boyfriend from boarding school. I didn¿¿t have a SIM card so I had to contact my friend through social media to call the police. I stayed with her for a couple days and her mother helped me get through it, having lost her son to suicide years ago. I couldn¿¿t contain it any longer and it was obvious I needed to speak to my parents and to a professional. I opened up to my parents and it was difficult but relieving. I¿¿m getting therapy via zoom so that I can continue when I go back to France. I¿¿ve talked to a family doctor and I¿¿m trying anxiety medication. I¿¿m getting tested for ADHD/ADD as soon as my anxiety calms down because they have common symptoms. This September I will try my best to keep organized and do well. Please let me have Credit standing for PHIL111 and FILM111 and drop outs for my failed courses. I¿¿m not applying for Credit standing for SPAN111 which I took in Fall because languages are fairly easy for me and I¿¿m satisfied with my B+. I am currently retaking SPA112 which I previously took during Winter term.
Thank you for your consideration.