{"id":71094,"date":"2020-11-11T11:41:43","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T16:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=71094"},"modified":"2025-10-17T10:38:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:38:30","slug":"degree-after-learning-difficulties","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/degree-after-learning-difficulties\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Graduation 2020: Celebrating a Bachelor Degree After Learning Difficulties Diagnosed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Fall Graduation 2020: Celebrating a Bachelor Degree After Learning Difficulties Diagnosed\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton\u2019s Fall Graduation 2020, a university-wide online celebration, launched on Saturday, Nov. 14. Watch the celebration at the Carleton Grads 2020<\/a> website now!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even though Maarukh Abbas is now in her first year of the Law and Legal Studies master\u2019s program<\/a> at Carleton University, there was a time when she wasn\u2019t even sure she would earn her bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cHigh school does not prepare you for university,\u201d she says, a touch ruefully.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

During the first two years of her undergraduate studies at Carleton, Abbas struggled, earning low marks despite dedicated studying. Demoralized, but determined to figure out what was holding her back, she went to Carleton\u2019s Health and Counselling Services<\/a> for advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maarukh
Maarukh Abbas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The answer? She had previously undiagnosed learning disabilities\u2014specifically, attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as prescribing medication to help her focus, Health and Counselling Services connected Abbas to the university\u2019s Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities<\/a>. With those supports in place, Abbas began to thrive at Carleton. Soon, she was earning B\u2019s and A\u2019s. In her final undergrad semester, she was a straight-A student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I look at my transcript, I can see the upward climb,\u201d she says. \u201cIt still shocks me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until that final semester, she hadn\u2019t really considered pursuing a master\u2019s degree. Once she had tasted success, however, she wanted to go on. She looks at the master\u2019s program as both a reward for her hard work in the undergraduate program and as a second chance to excel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The master\u2019s program is also giving Abbas a chance to delve more deeply into law and legal studies\u2014a field that hadn\u2019t even been her first choice when she arrived at Carleton. She originally enrolled in the criminology program with a minor in psychology, but the courses in law and legal studies really captured her interest and inspired her to switch majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy professors in my last two years had a lot to do with it,\u201d she explains, noting that she became increasingly aware of issues such as structural injustices within the legal system.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201c[They] really made me understand I\u2019m living in a world where I\u2019m closing my eyes to certain serious matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Carleton\u2019s faculty also played a big part in her decision to stay at Carleton to pursue a master\u2019s rather than attending another university. \u201cI chose to stay at Carleton because I know the professors there and they\u2019re very helpful,\u201d she says. \u201cThey understand that it\u2019s not just schooling that [students have] to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She advises any student facing difficulties at university to persevere. \u201cFigure out what it is that you need. Go to health services, go to counselling services, and really get to the root of the problem,\u201d she says. She initially hesitated, due to the stigma that sometimes surrounds issues related to disabilities and mental health. However, she says, if she hadn\u2019t overcome her own resistance, she would never have learned about her ADD and ADHD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of these things are put in place to help you, but if you\u2019re afraid to even get the answers, then you\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Fall<\/figure>\n\n\n

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\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton\u2019s Fall Graduation 2020, a university-wide online celebration, launched on Saturday, Nov. 14. Watch the celebration at the Carleton Grads 2020 website now! Even though Maarukh Abbas is now in her first year of the Law and Legal Studies master\u2019s program at Carleton University, there was a time when she wasn\u2019t even sure she would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":71097,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1921],"class_list":["post-71094","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-public-and-global-affairs"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97960,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71094\/revisions\/97960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=71094"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=71094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}