Sion held its annual Deep Dive conference on Friday, Oct. 11. The day started off strong with keynote speaker Ann Gaffigan, who spoke about her experience running in track and women’s steeplechase. Then she talked about women in the Olympics and the difficulties of inequality in the sports industry that most all women deal with on a daily basis.
“I thought she was really good. She kept me engaged and I wasn’t bored. I like that she talked about her challenges and how she wanted to do steeplechase,” sophomore Layla Love said.
After the keynote speaker finished her speech, students broke off to go to their first sessions of the day. Each session was 45 minutes long, and students learned a new skill that they can apply in real world scenarios. Some of the conferences were led by students, and others by faculty. There was a wide variety of sessions available to the students this year, from learning to change a tire with science teacher Alex Rodriguez to traveling off campus to the University of Kansas (KU) to learn about journalism or economics.
“I did the yoga session, which was really nice. It was very calming and relaxing, especially it being the first thing in the morning. I also did the crime lab, and although we didn’t actually go to the crime lab we still got to see the cops. My favorite one was the KU journalism session, because I got to read off a telecaster and work with Adobe products” Love said.
In between the morning and afternoon sessions was lunch. A local restaurant, Jerusalem Cafe, catered Mediterranean food such as yellow rice, lamb, falafels, pita bread, hummus, salad and mixed veggies. Then, they also served desserts in the grande salle from all over the globe, made by the Sion students. There were desserts from France, Italy, Switzerland and many more. Some of the popular options were tiramisu, crepes and cinnamon pretzels. tudents were given a punch card for the option to choose four of the desserts provided.
“I liked the selections they gave, but I just didn’t know what half of them would taste like, so I was nervous to use my punch card. I just ended up getting two tiramisus and they were really good” Love said.
The students ended the day in the gym for a reflection with the whole school. There was a Google Form sent out by the school to fill out thoughts and opinions on the day. After the feedback all the students were dismissed to go about the rest of their day.