Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean of Studies,
I am appealing to waive the one term deadline for appealing courses from the Winter 2018 term.
There are several extenuating circumstances I have faced over the past year, which have led me to write this appeal. My mom was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer on October 24th, 2017 and since then my life has been completely turned upside down. This diagnosis has not only severely disabled my mental health, it has also had extreme impacts on my academic performance. I was driving two hours home every weekend to take care of her and our family, and her being a single mother who heavily relies on my support, this was a difficult task for me. I have always struggled with my own mental health, however, her sickness had increased my anxiety, brought on bouts of panic attacks, as well as heightened my social anxiety due to isolation from those around me. Several of my Winter 2018 courses suffered tremendously as a direct result of my mother¿¿s illness as well as my own suffering mental health. With all my new responsibilities of taking care of my siblings, driving to and from hospital visits, and taking care of my mom after surgery; submitting my work on time seemed like my last priority. I hope that you will give me a chance to fully explain my experience over the school year in my appeal, however, in this letter I will explain the main reasons that I missed the deadline. When the Winter 2018 term ended, my focus continued to be on my mom, supporting my family, and improving my mental health. To be honest, I avoided checking my final marks at all because I knew that the results would be as bad as I predicted them to be. At this point, I was in denial about my horrible semester, and wanted to push any stress from school completely out of my life. I felt as if my plate was completely full, and I knew that I could not handle the added stress of finding out my final grades. By the time I checked my final exam marks, in June of 2018, I realized that I had failed one course, and received extremely poor marks in two others. My plan was to start fresh in September, and retake the one course that I had failed, PHGY210. I had no idea that with my situation I would be able to appeal, never mind know that an important deadline to do so was quickly approaching. It was July 20, 2018 when I emailed the school and was kindly informed by Allison Gowanlock with the faculty of Arts and Science, that the course I was planning to retake, PHGY210, was no longer offered at Queens University. Despite daily phone calls, I was not able to get through to talk to an advisor over the phone, so I decided to wait until September when I was done work to talk in person. At the beginning of September 2018, I was dealing with extreme anxiety from being back at school, and it brought back so many painful feelings with regards to my previous year. I felt embarrassed with my past marks, and the thought of explaining my whole situation brought me to the point of a panic attack. My anxiety became extremely disabling during the early weeks of September, to the point of vomiting daily. My social anxiety was also extremely difficult to deal with at this point, as last year I was very isolated due to my situation and felt very alone returning to campus. On September 10, 2018, I finally decided I would go to class, BIOL300 with Dr. Paul Martin. I attended class, and he explained that every class he would randomly call on students for answers to go towards participation marks. A request that seemed like a small inconvenience to most, sent me into a full panic attack. I immediately left class and drove two hours home to my family doctor. He was the only professional I¿¿ve ever opened up to about my anxiety, and he filled out a Queens Student Accessibility Form for me, verifying the extent of my anxiety and panic attacks. Thankfully, Dr.Martin was very understanding of my situation, and I did not go through with formal accommodations for that class. After this happened, I was able to see an academic advisor on September 18 2018, 3 days after the appeal deadline (which at the time I unfortunately did not know was of importance to me). I openly discussed my situation with the advisor, Spring Forsberg-Lewis, and we decided that the best option for my mental health was to drop two of the six courses that I had planned on taking. This was when she also mentioned the option to appeal my final grades, which was something that I did not even think was possible for me. After I found out the deadline had passed, I realized that I needed to stabilize my own mental health before I could successfully write my appeal. I tried to write the appeal several times, however each time my over-emotional explanation clouded the actual points that I was trying to convey. I then decided that I would take my time and wait until I was emotionally stable enough to allow myself to write about my struggle to the best of my ability. My mom has now been cleared for cancer, I am seeing my family doctor regularly, as well as hoping to get an appointment at Queens as soon as possible. I am only taking four courses this semester and am keeping up with course content. I feel as though the situations that impacted me previously are no longer influencing my academics, and I am prepared to take all the steps necessary to repair my grades. Therefore, I¿¿ve waited until now, November 9, 2018, to write this letter, and I hope you will be willing to consider giving me an opportunity to explain my struggle and how it directly influenced my final grades.
Thank you very much for your consideration,
Isabella Escobar (10194964)
I am appealing to waive the one term deadline for appealing courses from the Winter 2018 term.
There are several extenuating circumstances I have faced over the past year, which have led me to write this appeal. My mom was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer on October 24th, 2017 and since then my life has been completely turned upside down. This diagnosis has not only severely disabled my mental health, it has also had extreme impacts on my academic performance. I was driving two hours home every weekend to take care of her and our family, and her being a single mother who heavily relies on my support, this was a difficult task for me. I have always struggled with my own mental health, however, her sickness had increased my anxiety, brought on bouts of panic attacks, as well as heightened my social anxiety due to isolation from those around me. Several of my Winter 2018 courses suffered tremendously as a direct result of my mother¿¿s illness as well as my own suffering mental health. With all my new responsibilities of taking care of my siblings, driving to and from hospital visits, and taking care of my mom after surgery; submitting my work on time seemed like my last priority. I hope that you will give me a chance to fully explain my experience over the school year in my appeal, however, in this letter I will explain the main reasons that I missed the deadline. When the Winter 2018 term ended, my focus continued to be on my mom, supporting my family, and improving my mental health. To be honest, I avoided checking my final marks at all because I knew that the results would be as bad as I predicted them to be. At this point, I was in denial about my horrible semester, and wanted to push any stress from school completely out of my life. I felt as if my plate was completely full, and I knew that I could not handle the added stress of finding out my final grades. By the time I checked my final exam marks, in June of 2018, I realized that I had failed one course, and received extremely poor marks in two others. My plan was to start fresh in September, and retake the one course that I had failed, PHGY210. I had no idea that with my situation I would be able to appeal, never mind know that an important deadline to do so was quickly approaching. It was July 20, 2018 when I emailed the school and was kindly informed by Allison Gowanlock with the faculty of Arts and Science, that the course I was planning to retake, PHGY210, was no longer offered at Queens University. Despite daily phone calls, I was not able to get through to talk to an advisor over the phone, so I decided to wait until September when I was done work to talk in person. At the beginning of September 2018, I was dealing with extreme anxiety from being back at school, and it brought back so many painful feelings with regards to my previous year. I felt embarrassed with my past marks, and the thought of explaining my whole situation brought me to the point of a panic attack. My anxiety became extremely disabling during the early weeks of September, to the point of vomiting daily. My social anxiety was also extremely difficult to deal with at this point, as last year I was very isolated due to my situation and felt very alone returning to campus. On September 10, 2018, I finally decided I would go to class, BIOL300 with Dr. Paul Martin. I attended class, and he explained that every class he would randomly call on students for answers to go towards participation marks. A request that seemed like a small inconvenience to most, sent me into a full panic attack. I immediately left class and drove two hours home to my family doctor. He was the only professional I¿¿ve ever opened up to about my anxiety, and he filled out a Queens Student Accessibility Form for me, verifying the extent of my anxiety and panic attacks. Thankfully, Dr.Martin was very understanding of my situation, and I did not go through with formal accommodations for that class. After this happened, I was able to see an academic advisor on September 18 2018, 3 days after the appeal deadline (which at the time I unfortunately did not know was of importance to me). I openly discussed my situation with the advisor, Spring Forsberg-Lewis, and we decided that the best option for my mental health was to drop two of the six courses that I had planned on taking. This was when she also mentioned the option to appeal my final grades, which was something that I did not even think was possible for me. After I found out the deadline had passed, I realized that I needed to stabilize my own mental health before I could successfully write my appeal. I tried to write the appeal several times, however each time my over-emotional explanation clouded the actual points that I was trying to convey. I then decided that I would take my time and wait until I was emotionally stable enough to allow myself to write about my struggle to the best of my ability. My mom has now been cleared for cancer, I am seeing my family doctor regularly, as well as hoping to get an appointment at Queens as soon as possible. I am only taking four courses this semester and am keeping up with course content. I feel as though the situations that impacted me previously are no longer influencing my academics, and I am prepared to take all the steps necessary to repair my grades. Therefore, I¿¿ve waited until now, November 9, 2018, to write this letter, and I hope you will be willing to consider giving me an opportunity to explain my struggle and how it directly influenced my final grades.
Thank you very much for your consideration,
Isabella Escobar (10194964)