Petition Letter
Glad Dragos
10025387
To the office of the Associate Dean (Studies),
I am appealing the twenty-one day appeal deadline in order to validate my request for Credit Standing in GEOL 106, POLS 110 and FILM 110.
As a new Arts and Sciences student at Queen¿¿s, I was planning on getting a Bachelor¿¿s degree in political sciences and further my studies into law afterwards. Starting near the middle of the fall term of 2011, I began noticing an influx of negative changes starting to take over my life to a degree that I have not previously experienced. I attempted to reject these changes, considering that I was only going through a trivial phase that I was waiting for to pass by. Due to very little mental and emotional support from my parents upon inspecting my grades from the fall term, I fell into a mentally unstable state that advanced with a snowball effect, due to the added pressures that come with first adapting to the university environment.
I failed a course and dropped another two courses in order to preserve a passable GPA for the year. It was at this point that I turned to smoking cigarettes as a means to calming myself down from the anxiety that this period had caused for me. I also started experimenting with a variety of ADHD medication as I felt that it was my only hope of passing the courses I was still enrolled in. I became addicted as I felt the need to take these medications daily since they also suppressed my feelings of depression to a certain degree. This sterile routine reached its end after I found the courage to seek help for myself, around the middle of February in 2012. I approached Queen¿¿s Health and Disability Services and the people there advised me to see a psychologist. Upon meeting with him, Dr. Chuck Vetere has helped me vocalize my issues and brought up my self-esteem. I also started booking many appointments with academic advisors in order to secure a future path for myself and to ensure success.
It was near the end of the 2012 winter term that I was ready to start making changes in my lifestyle towards a positive outcome, with the help and care received from Dr. Vetere, my high school math tutor and my friends. I took a course during the 2012 summer in order to boost my GPA, as well as starting to write the appeal. At the time, I had no sources to account for the claims I was making beside the few visits I had with Dr. Vetere, however, I wanted to write a strong appeal and knew that I must also appeal to waive the 21-day regulation. Being unsure as to whether I was making a mistake in writing the appeal, since at the time I did not fully understand the severity of my issues, I wanted to complete second year before making a decision on submitting it - in order to prove to myself that there really was something amiss about my mental health during my time in first year and that it was not an ongoing state. As I developed a relationship with Dr. Vetere and my old math tutor separately throughout the fall and winter terms of second year, more evidence of my situation became available that outlined my experience to a high degree of accuracy. It was due to these meetings with Dr. Vetere that have enabled me to see that I had persisting anxiety issues throughout my life and it was something to start working on immediately. Becoming aware of my situation helped me realized that my struggles at the time were not my fault, which gave me a lot of hope and enabled me to plan future goals. When I attempted to contact Dr. Vetere, I received news that he had become unreachable for the next couple of months; he was the only person at the time that was able to validate my case from a professional perspective. After going through many people to reach him, I was finally able to get in touch with him at the beginning of the 2012 Fall term due to his personal sickness and time off from his office.
It was very hard communicating with him at this time, however, many issues were cleared up in the 2013 Winter term as I had everything I needed from Dr. Vetere and was able to get my tutor as a second source to giver her input regarding my appeal since I opened up to her the most and she had seen me progress mentally and academically during the summer. I frequently met with her that summer in order to prepare me for the calculus and physics courses I enrolled in for the 2013/2014 year (I had no previous mathematical knowledge since I last took grade 10 math, nor did I take any science courses). Due to her sickness, I was unable to get in contact with her until near the end of the 2013 Winter Term.
As summer of 2013 began, I was gravely assaulted in my home city, leaving me in the hospital for a week and in dire conditions for the next couple of weeks following that, as well as treatment plans that will be ongoing throughout 2013/2014 school year. Documentation is provided from my surgeon at the time after I was let out of the hospital. The event resulting in a serious trauma to the face and skull, I was unable to eat, sleep, nor think properly for the first healing period. For most of the summer, I was constrained to my bed and restricted from participating in any type of physical activity and was unable to work on the appeal. In this time, I also had to appeal to drop a summer course I was taking, MATH 121, because my state did not permit for me to finish the online course.
My recovery will never be fully complete, however I have been seeing specialists and undergoing surgeries, which made it difficult for me to split my time between school work and other activities. The recovery is no longer detrimental to my academics and being isolated from my usual activities in this time has allowed me to focus my time on studying and learning.
The series of events explained hindered me from submitting the appeal within the 21-day limit as described by the appeal regulations. I believe that I have made great progress since my acceptance to Queen¿¿s University and I am not planning on giving up on my dreams and goals anytime soon.
Sincerely,
Glad Dragos
1gd4@queensu.ca
10025387
To the office of the Associate Dean (Studies),
I am appealing the twenty-one day appeal deadline in order to validate my request for Credit Standing in GEOL 106, POLS 110 and FILM 110.
As a new Arts and Sciences student at Queen¿¿s, I was planning on getting a Bachelor¿¿s degree in political sciences and further my studies into law afterwards. Starting near the middle of the fall term of 2011, I began noticing an influx of negative changes starting to take over my life to a degree that I have not previously experienced. I attempted to reject these changes, considering that I was only going through a trivial phase that I was waiting for to pass by. Due to very little mental and emotional support from my parents upon inspecting my grades from the fall term, I fell into a mentally unstable state that advanced with a snowball effect, due to the added pressures that come with first adapting to the university environment.
I failed a course and dropped another two courses in order to preserve a passable GPA for the year. It was at this point that I turned to smoking cigarettes as a means to calming myself down from the anxiety that this period had caused for me. I also started experimenting with a variety of ADHD medication as I felt that it was my only hope of passing the courses I was still enrolled in. I became addicted as I felt the need to take these medications daily since they also suppressed my feelings of depression to a certain degree. This sterile routine reached its end after I found the courage to seek help for myself, around the middle of February in 2012. I approached Queen¿¿s Health and Disability Services and the people there advised me to see a psychologist. Upon meeting with him, Dr. Chuck Vetere has helped me vocalize my issues and brought up my self-esteem. I also started booking many appointments with academic advisors in order to secure a future path for myself and to ensure success.
It was near the end of the 2012 winter term that I was ready to start making changes in my lifestyle towards a positive outcome, with the help and care received from Dr. Vetere, my high school math tutor and my friends. I took a course during the 2012 summer in order to boost my GPA, as well as starting to write the appeal. At the time, I had no sources to account for the claims I was making beside the few visits I had with Dr. Vetere, however, I wanted to write a strong appeal and knew that I must also appeal to waive the 21-day regulation. Being unsure as to whether I was making a mistake in writing the appeal, since at the time I did not fully understand the severity of my issues, I wanted to complete second year before making a decision on submitting it - in order to prove to myself that there really was something amiss about my mental health during my time in first year and that it was not an ongoing state. As I developed a relationship with Dr. Vetere and my old math tutor separately throughout the fall and winter terms of second year, more evidence of my situation became available that outlined my experience to a high degree of accuracy. It was due to these meetings with Dr. Vetere that have enabled me to see that I had persisting anxiety issues throughout my life and it was something to start working on immediately. Becoming aware of my situation helped me realized that my struggles at the time were not my fault, which gave me a lot of hope and enabled me to plan future goals. When I attempted to contact Dr. Vetere, I received news that he had become unreachable for the next couple of months; he was the only person at the time that was able to validate my case from a professional perspective. After going through many people to reach him, I was finally able to get in touch with him at the beginning of the 2012 Fall term due to his personal sickness and time off from his office.
It was very hard communicating with him at this time, however, many issues were cleared up in the 2013 Winter term as I had everything I needed from Dr. Vetere and was able to get my tutor as a second source to giver her input regarding my appeal since I opened up to her the most and she had seen me progress mentally and academically during the summer. I frequently met with her that summer in order to prepare me for the calculus and physics courses I enrolled in for the 2013/2014 year (I had no previous mathematical knowledge since I last took grade 10 math, nor did I take any science courses). Due to her sickness, I was unable to get in contact with her until near the end of the 2013 Winter Term.
As summer of 2013 began, I was gravely assaulted in my home city, leaving me in the hospital for a week and in dire conditions for the next couple of weeks following that, as well as treatment plans that will be ongoing throughout 2013/2014 school year. Documentation is provided from my surgeon at the time after I was let out of the hospital. The event resulting in a serious trauma to the face and skull, I was unable to eat, sleep, nor think properly for the first healing period. For most of the summer, I was constrained to my bed and restricted from participating in any type of physical activity and was unable to work on the appeal. In this time, I also had to appeal to drop a summer course I was taking, MATH 121, because my state did not permit for me to finish the online course.
My recovery will never be fully complete, however I have been seeing specialists and undergoing surgeries, which made it difficult for me to split my time between school work and other activities. The recovery is no longer detrimental to my academics and being isolated from my usual activities in this time has allowed me to focus my time on studying and learning.
The series of events explained hindered me from submitting the appeal within the 21-day limit as described by the appeal regulations. I believe that I have made great progress since my acceptance to Queen¿¿s University and I am not planning on giving up on my dreams and goals anytime soon.
Sincerely,
Glad Dragos
1gd4@queensu.ca