Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Letter: Dear Board of Studies,


I am appealing the Associate Dean's decision to deny my appeal to drop ENGL 100, FRST 120, WRIT 120 ( Summer 2021 ).

First of all, I would like to apologize for not fully discolouring my situation in my first-level appeal letter. I was ashamed to share what was happening, but mostly I didn't know I wasn't doing well, and I was on the edge of a mental breakdown.

In the first week of June, I was in the hospital for dysmenorrhea. I was in extreme pain, and the doctor implied that I had a high chance of having ovarian endometrioma. Two weeks afterward, my grandmother was infected with pneumonia. On top of it, my dad reached out to me for financial support. Finally, I felt l had no choice but to pick up extra shifts again.

I went to work not only because I needed the money, but it was also the only place where I felt like nothing was going wrong. Every day was leaving the house to go to work. When I'm not at work, I am on my way home to take care of my grandmother and do school. I didn't get any sleep cause I had to be alerted the whole time. When I logged in to Queens trying to complete my course and saw the thousands of activity summary emails, I was so physically and mentally tired to do it.

Soon, I got a call from my family in Canada; while all these happening, they asked me how school was, and I lied. I told them everything was going well and I was fine. Deep down, though, I felt like I was failing them, so I decided to reach out to the advisor again and seek advice and hope to make this right.

In my first meeting with the advisor, I realized how sad and angry I was. Dealing with my biological mom, with whom I never had a relationship, and going to work and spending all the money for a grandmother I barely know. My dad, who never had been in my life, asked me to support him financially. While I had dysmenorrhea and had to get an injection, none of the people I helped asked me how I was doing. Finally, I broke down; that's why I stopped school.

After the meeting, I admitted I was not doing ok, and my advisor advised me to find a counsellor. I reached out to Student Wellness Service, but I couldn't set up a meeting with a counsellor as I'm not in Ontario. Although I couldn't afford the counselling fee in Hong Kong, I did reach out to my bible study group and ask for prayers. Honestly, all the things are still happening, but the fact that I failed all three courses in one term was a reality check for me that I'm not able to carry all these problems on my own. My advisor ended the email with the best advice, and I need to take care of myself before taking care of others. I need to be responsible for myself first, and school should be my priority.


To avoid the same thing happened again, I'm only going to enrol in ENGL 100 for my fall term as I would like to make sure I have enough time to complete the course and hopefully achieve a higher GPA mark. In the meantime, I planned to take fewer shifts and reserve enough hours for my studies. I'm still currently looking for affordable counselling services in Hong Kong and across countries in Asia. I will still help my family, but I will set clear boundaries to avoid again putting my school grades at risk.


Sincerely,
Lok, Janice