Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Crow,
Over the course of my first year at Queen??s, I experienced an overwhelmingly challenging transition into college life. After nearly a year-and-a-half of exclusive online learning in my final years at High School, I was finally able to resume in-person leaning at the University. I experienced all the related and expected emotions ranging from excitedness, nervousness, and eagerness to learn alongside my fellow peers having gone through potentially similar experiences as my own. These feelings were sustained for opening weeks of the semester, however challenges mounted rather quickly which made my experience in my first year unusually difficult. Years of setting aside and not fully addressing personal tragedy, online learning during critical preparatory years, coupled with the striking change of living in a new environment/country without family or friends, began to take a toll emotionally and academically.
Following the death of my mother during the third semester of tenth grade, an emotional shock/paralysis came over me that I was unable to quite grasp, comprehend or articulate. I couldn??t quite understand how to process such a monumental loss, especially given my tendency for keeping such things close and not readily desiring to express my journey outwardly. In fact, I ensured a very minor reduction in my academic performance at the time. In retrospect, I??d say that my immersion and razor-sharp focus on my academics was somewhat therapeutic in the short-term, albeit evidently not a long-term solution for healing. In addition, upon reflection, I didn??t want to use my family??s tragedy to excuse any lapse in my focus or performance. I now recognize that this was a defense mechanism that I utilized to shield myself from the devastation I felt within. What I did not realize at the time was that the void left by my loss in addition to the isolation due to the global pandemic, gave me a unidimensional focus while other passions of mine and coping mechanisms fell by the wayside. This constellation of circumstances led to an internal imbalance, the ramifications of which I am experiencing today. In Canada, where I felt I had no one to be by my side, I quickly began to feel alone and isolated, and a great sadness overcame me. The lack of time taken to properly grieve back then took an unforeseen toll on my emotional health and by extension my productivity. I had shifted from being an efficient and effective student, to one that was easily distracted and discouraged. I could tell something was drastically different about my mood and energy level, but I brushed this off as temporary without giving it proper attention. One of the many things I??ve taken the time to reflect about over the summer is my willingness to seek help. During the course of my first year, I neglected seeking assistance from counselors and other professionals as to not raise flags to those around me that something was awry, especially my family for sake of preserving their emotional well-being. Shortly after our loss, my father extended his hand and offered to provide me therapy sessions and took great care into offering support, but I was very reluctant then to receive outside help. My father had a session with the child psychologist on my behalf, and she herself said that therapy would not be optimally beneficial unless the desire came from me. I wished to work through my problems privately, naively failing to consider that sometimes a voice and coping mechanisms from the outside can be beneficial. This confluence of facts proved to be detrimental, as my academic performance plummeted well below my standards as well as the toll it took on me emotionally.
In conjunction to my extenuating personal situation, this year I took on a course load more rigorous and ambitious than required, which over time the workload difficulty began to snowball to a significant extent when combined with the emotional burden I felt. I made a strategic mistake in selecting the rigorous course load that I did, as both my Physics and Biology courses could have been deferred to later years. According to the Chemistry degree plan, my only other required course apart from Chemistry was MATH 121. My struggles specifically in Calculus were detrimental, as my PHYS 104 course heavily relied on this subject. In retrospect, the Mathematics Department at my High School was unable to sufficiently prepare me for college level Calculus through online learning. My poor performance in Math weighed negatively on my self-confidence; this causative reduction in my morale cascaded in causing adverse effects to my performance in other subjects. Additionally, the nature of science online learning has been a particularly difficult issue for me to overcome. In the Anatomy course for example, the entire class was conducted online through OnQ and other external clients to complete the labs. I never once saw the face of an instructor and therefore understandably felt alone in my learning. This further aggravated my first-year struggles attempting to overcome the transition between high school and college academics. I also believe the history of my major programs should be amended as I do not wish the Geology major to be reflected on my transcript. I only chose Geology because it was within my GPA threshold and the Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry was restricted as a second option. Geology is not relevant to any classes that I will be taking or my overall career goals.
Given what I have learned in this years?? experience and the measures taken, I am confident that I will be able to overcome these struggles in September, as I have sought the help of advisors, counselors, and my family to work through this challenge. I have also been diligently preparing to strengthen my skills in Calculus over the summer, to lay the foundations for higher level courses and to prove to myself that I can excel in the subject. I know I can use it effectively as a tool moving forward in my career. I have been informed by advisors from the Department of Arts and Sciences that I would be able to improve my GPA through the process of academic appeal. I am applying for an academic appeal for MATH 121, BIOL 102 and ANAT 100. I am still within the process of gathering all the information I can to make an informed decision about the classes I will enroll in next year. I have a strong resolve within myself to improve my situation and academic standing. I will use every resource available to me at the university to reach my full academic potential and career goals. I thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal.

Respectfully,
Alexander Paris Rapp