On March 23, the annual Aegis III authority conference commenced, and it was safe to say it was a success. It started at 9:15 a.m. and ended at 2:30 p.m. The library classrooms were home for this year’s conference. Librarians extraordinaire Molly Dettman and Rachael Lester assisted in coordinating and planning the event. It began with opening remarks from Dr. Kim Garret, principal of Norman North High School which was followed by Jessica Echbach’s perforation of the remarks. Jessica is the English Language Arts Curriculum Coordinator of the district. She is a huge supporter of the Aegis program at Norman North and Norman High and is amazed at their accomplishments each and every year. 

The goal of the conference is to allow Aegis III students to present their findings in their research papers by diving deeper into their anchor text of choice. Aegis III students had the opportunity to do a Ted Talk-style presentation or to be a part of a panel, made up of a couple of similarly themed papers. There were five Ted Talks given at the conference and three panels. Their papers had to do with the theme of authority. They looked into what authority is, what types of authority exist, and how authority manifests itself in all different spheres of life. 

Aegis IV students were able to collaborate with the Aegis III students by volunteering to create questions to allow further discussion and examination of their papers. The audience consisted of Norman North faculty, staff, and students as well as parents of the students. This allows everyone to be involved in this major event. This was a professional event and gave the students great experience for their future careers and formal social events. This informative experience is an amazing occasion and a pinnacle moment of the Aegis journey.