code: def _process_json(data):
      
      requests = []
      for item in data:
          petition = GradPetition()
          petition.description = item.get('description')
          petition.submit_date = parse_datetime(item.get('submitDate'))
          petition.decision_date = parse_datetime(item.get('decisionDate'))
  
          if item.get('deptRecommend') and len(item.get('deptRecommend')):
              petition.dept_recommend = item.get('deptRecommend').lower()
  
          if item.get('gradSchoolDecision') and\
             len(item.get('gradSchoolDecision')):
              petition.gradschool_decision =\
                  item.get('gradSchoolDecision').lower()
          requests.append(petition)
      return requests
docs: return a list of GradPetition objects.