Signature Impacts Programs
Sion’s Signature Programs use the designing impacts process to identify, explore, and more deeply understand problems impacting the community. Students collaborate with community partners to build an innovative solution with a lasting impact. Each course challenges young women to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and real-world professional skills, including presentation, interpersonal communication, project management, and collaboration skills. These courses include:
- Engineering and Ingenuity
- Internal Impacts
- Designing Real World Impacts
Learn more about these programs here.
Experiential Learning & Deep Dives
Sion is building partnerships with local and global companies to engage our students in real-world experiences, internships, travel opportunities, and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Sion's curriculum leverages learning outside of the classroom into nontraditional educational spaces. Our goal is to provide our young women with the tools, support, and skills to explore and make a sustainable impact in our local community and beyond.
Many students have received traditional schooling, and are unaware of the interrelationship between courses. In full commitment to an experiential approach to learning, we are dedicating three weeks of the school year to hosting deep dives where students can spend time applying their knowledge and learning from community professionals.
Learn more about Experiential Learning and Deep Dives here.
Humanities at Sion
The Humanities Department is full of teachers who love their subject matter! 92% of the Humanities Department has postgraduate degrees, and each member of the Department inspires academic excellence in his/her students. The subjects of Social Studies, English, World Languages, and Theology make up the Humanities Department. Each subject offers a variety of academic, honors, college credit, and AP courses.
We offer French & Spanish in person as well as Latin, Chinese and American Sign Language with our online partner, One Schoolhouse.
In our senior English classes, students have a choice between AP Literature, Storytelling Through Writing and Film, Women in Leadership, and Revolutionary Voices in Non-Fiction.
In addition to offering courses in a more traditional setting, the Humanities Department is completely dedicated to experiential learning. For example, students can earn their senior English credit down the street from Sion at Burns & McDonnell. In Designing Real World Impacts, students meet off-site in a professional working environment for the second half of the school day. They have the opportunity to travel to various sites across the metro-area to meet with entrepreneurs and professionals who seek to inspire change and have a positive impact through their work. After identifying real problems impacting the lives of people in their community, students develop connections with professionals across the city and the country. The design thinking process is utilized so that students can respond with a solution that has meaningful and lasting impact.
STEAM at Sion
Sion’s STEAM offerings include Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Women’s Health, Forensic Science, Anatomy & Physiology, Theatre Tech, Engineering, Robotics, and Computer Science. These offerings complement four years of mathematics courses that prepare students for STEAM careers. Students may also take part in AP offerings in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Art, Statistics, and Calculus.
Sion’s STEAM program seeks to elevate student experiences by integrating experiential learning into each classroom. Anatomy & Physiology students participate in simulations and basic skill labs with nursing students at Research College of Nursing. AP Environmental Science students engage in Research and Development at KState Olathe’s Horticulture Center. Curatorial fellows and artists at Charlotte Street Foundation collaborate with Sion’s AP Art students to bring them into the exhibition curation process. Our Engineering and Ingenuity students use the design thinking process to identify, analyze, and produce innovative solutions to authentic problems. In this course, students tour engineering firms, shadow various engineering fields, and receive critical feedback from community professionals at Automatic Systems, Inc. , Dimensional Innovations, and Burns and McDonnell. Students gain a robust understanding of curricular applications and develop market value assets that prepare for future success.
Building Empathy for “the Other”
The charism of Sion emphasizes that encounters with the “other” is key in building the kingdom of God. Sion’s curriculum gives students the opportunity to engage with people whose beliefs, cultures, and worldviews are different from their own. First-year students spend time in a semester course entitled “Rooted in Faith” where they make connections between the Catholic faith and their role as young women at our school and beyond. Sion emphasizes the skills needed to dialogue with others in a way that builds peace and justice. Each student actively participates in service to the marginalized and takes a course in Catholic Social Teaching.
Power of an All-Girls Learning Environment
We are rooted in sisterhood. Research shows the power of an all-girls environment, but we aren’t just a school WITH all girls, we are school FOR girls built on a welcoming, supportive environment.
At Sion, girls take center stage. Girls occupy every seat in student government, every spot on the math team, and every position in the robotics club. In fact, every aspect of a girls’ school – from the classroom to the athletic field to the academic program – is designed for girls.
We are building self-confidence, developing leadership skills, and committed to empowering young women in underrepresented fields.
Did you know
Curricular Philosophy
At Sion, our belief in the transformative power of learning is rooted in the unique charism of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion. In 1843, the sisters established schools open to all levels of society and all religions. At the time, this openness was unprecedented for Catholic education and transformed the way students learned about their place in history and the world. Curriculum and instruction at Notre Dame de Sion High School are designed to support learning that transforms the hearts and minds of our students. In order to meet this goal, as well as the needs of all our learners, Sion teachers are encouraged to employ several different methods of instruction with a focus on inquiry-based learning in an environment where the student-teacher relationship is a unique pedagogical space, a space where the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and perspectives enliven both individuals and build understanding.