In the fall of 2021, Sion created a conference called Deep Dives, which allowed students to take classes about real-world skills and take courses based on their interests to discover more career opportunities.
These “Deep Dives” take place as a conference in the fall and as a two-week class in the spring. Both courses have evolved over the years to give students the best experience and opportunities available.
“Coming from a public school I never would’ve gotten an opportunity like this, so it really makes me happy that Sion is helping me prepare for my future,” junior Abby Wendte said.
This year a student leadership team was developed in order to add additional student contributions. The leadership team met every week, and helped pick classes and activities that they thought their peers would enjoy.
“It was really nice to get to know more people, and get to listen and learn what students wanted to do,” junior and Deep Dive leadership council member Caroline Weber said.
Weber specifically played a big role on the leadership team using her summer job as inspiration for the Clothes Swap between Sion students. Students could bring in any clothes they wanted to swap, as long as they were in decent condition, and trade them for other items they thought were cute and stylish.
“My job this summer was working at plato’s closet and I used what I learned from that to organize the clothes swap,” Weber said. “We wanted to do something all students could be involved in and it wasn’t just based on whether you were crafty or not.”
The team also got the important job of designing and creating the logo for the deep dives. They wanted something that represented the idea that everything is connected through nature, and used water, earth, and national park logos as inspiration for the design.
“The logo honestly was so good, and I was so proud of how it came out in the end. I feel like we portrayed the inspiration very well, and created something we all loved,” Weber said.
Between both the fall and the spring conferences it takes a lot of time and thought to plan every detail. While they are very different, they both give students the opportunity to expand their knowledge of the real world. In the fall students take a variety of courses whereas in the spring they choose one specific course and study it or even travel.
“I definitely prefer the spring ones, because in the fall it’s a bunch of short little ones and you don’t get the time to fully immerse yourself in whatever you are learning about. In the spring ones you get more time to dive deep into it, hence the name, and get really interested in what you are learning,” said junior Kaylin Bendon
Traveling specifically has opened new doors for students at Sion to help them develop an idea of what they want their life to look like after they graduate. They got the opportunity to tour colleges that they might never have gotten to see due to money, time availability, or even just thought that place was not for them.
“I think one of the most real world things you can get in high school is understanding what to expect in college, so I think the best connection I cultivated was being able to tour a college that if Sion hadn’t offered I might not have been able to see before applying,” Elise Daugherty said.
Students also had the choice to leave the country for the first time last spring, and one of the places students traveled to was Guatemala. They got to serve communities, and see first hand the troubles people around the world face.
“My favorite memory is when we were building a stove at someone’s house, and their neighbors’ kids were outside playing,” senior Ellie Henson said . “I had to communicate to the kid with actions since we didn’t speak the same language, and we had a cartwheel competition of how many we could do in a row and this little 6 year old boy did so many in a row and beat me.”
Arguably, the best thing about deep dives is that you do not have to leave Kansas City to get these experiences. During this Falls Life Beyond Sion Conference students got to travel colleges in Kansas and Missouri, take college prep classes, visit the KC Current Stadium, and also do fitness classes such as yoga and self defense.
“I want to go into the medical field and be a pediatrician, so just like going on that deep dive I was kind of nervous that I wouldn’t be prepared, but it showed me what it would be like. I learned that I would be able to go to med school, and I would be able to handle it,” said Wendte, who attended the “Scrub Camp” deep dive at St. Marys.
Overall, through deep dives Sion has created a time designated for its students to grow, and learn more about themselves through hands-on learning and experiences. Deep Dives allow students to grow closer not only as a community, but cultivate connections with others they never thought they would have something in common with.
“It allowed me to meet new people I had never talked to before because the sessions I was in had all grades,” Henson said. “And meeting new people from outside our school community and their stories really expanded my point of view of others around me.”
