Petition Letter
I am appealing Queen¿¿s University to drop the course GPHY 101 late. This is due to a number of circumstances, of which the most primary is my ongoing struggle with mental health. This struggle has unfortunately plagued me for most of the past two years that I have spent studying at Queen¿¿s. However¿¿in terms of my mental health at least¿¿I have had a successful year through overcoming mental heath concerns, such as my ADHD and diagnosis of both depression and addiction. Above all, I have learned (albeit gradually) how to be able to manage these concerns much more effectively. I¿¿ll admit that I could not have done this alone; I have received help from two councillors in particular on a consistent basis to help manage my ADHD (Laura McNiven with Springboard) and addiction (Andrew Galloway with Edgewood). Unfortunately though, I became physically sick towards the end of the winter semester of this past academic year (2015), which gradually made it harder to cope with my mental health due to the added stress that resulted both from my absence from class and accumulation of missing work. This cumulated in my own mental health crisis, which took the form of a personal breakdown that was brought about by the stress caused by this situation towards the end of April. Fortunately however, through the help of both the councillors mentioned before, my psychologist, and academic advisor here at school (Haley Everson), I was able to get the necessary support needed to get caught up in all but one of the three classes that I fell behind in. I would like to highlight above all, that throughout the year (besides at the end of the second semester) I was able to manage my mental health problems a lot more effectively and successfully, and that even though I fell very behind towards the end of the year, I was able to complete all the assigned work except for one class, GPHY 101. Again. I want to state how immensely helpful Haley Everson has been, both as a go-between for the teachers and myself, and also for her advice throughout this process¿¿which has encouraged me to pursue more help next year, both from what the school offers and weekly ADHD and executive functioning coaching through ¿Springboard¿¿. With all this in mind (and also the acquisition of a more positive living space), I feel very positive about next year in both my academics and mental health. With all this being said, I would really appreciate your support in giving me the opportunity to get off academic probation through the late dropping of GPHY 101, and thus the opportunity to pursue a promising path on my desired academic plan for next year.