Petition Letter
To Whom it may concern,
My name is Tristan Burrell, I am a first-year varsity student-athlete from Vancouver, British Columbia enrolled in the BAH. I am writing to appeal for a late drop of my CISC 101 course. I am struggling with this course as there are a few factors affecting my ability to learn and apply my knowledge with this course material. Transitioning into my first year of university has been a bit of a struggle. I have had to deal with the constant worry about the weight of assignments in all my courses, and this has affected me personally. This especially affects my math courses because it is taking longer for me to learn and understand a concept/unit than most students, therefore I am very stressed when it comes to logic-based content. I am currently working with Carleigh Collins, Manager of Athlete Education, Training & Leadership Development, for academic support and connecting with QSAS for accommodations in the Winter 2024 term.
Alongside this, I came into football training camp and university with a severe ligament tear in my right knee which affected my well-being mentally and physically throughout the semester. Throughout the end of the season, I endured a couple minor injuries, which did not help my mental health and wellbeing as I had already suffered greatly from my knee injury. These injuries led me to have a very sluggish and slow start to the semester as I was trying to focus more on my health while balancing school. In addition, to my physical injuries, I was dealing with transitioning to first-year university and being very far away from my family and support.
I have reached out to my football coaches to receive support and resources which they generously provided as much as they could to stay on track such as providing grade tracking sheets, study halls that provided extra support, and constant communication with other varsity services which helped me get on a good path to finish off the semester. I intend to use these supports through the exam period and into next semester to ensure that I am on the right track going forward.
At this moment, I am currently stressed out with the amount of work that I need to finish off to be successful with this semester. I have tried to understand the content in this course but have been unable to process it. If I were able to drop the CISC 101 course, I could spend my time prepping and finishing off my other courses so that I am able to not let this course affect the others. However, I feel that I cannot accomplish this and excel to the best of my ability with these ongoing challenges that I face.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Tristan Burrell