CONCORD, N.C. — Hundreds of young girls got firsthand experience in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, also known as STEM.
Code Ninjas Concord is a franchise dedicated to teaching students how to code, and it hosted a Girls in STEM event at Cox Mill High School.
The decision to have a career in STEM starts early for some kids.
“I want to study the weather so I want to know when it's going to be a sunny day or when it's going to be a cloudy day or when there is going to be high air pressure or low," said 8-year-old Selena Misra, who wants to be a meteorologist.
The US Census Bureau says the number of women in STEM increased from 8% in 1970 to 27% in 2019, but men still largely dominate the field.
At the Girls in STEM girls learned about virtual reality, how to build robots, money management, and CPR.
The conference featured prominent women in STEM like engineers in the military.
"My dad was part of the military before me, and he kind of talked to me a lot about some of the career field," said Mikayla Ammerman, an Air Force C-17 Loadmaster. "And I fell in love with it immediately, especially since I'm an avid lover of math.”
Many of the women with a career in STEM said that believing in them was the catalyst to their success.
“I think that STEM really does help you think a certain way and gives you the building blocks to really just be curious and be a lifelong learner," said keynote speaker Ashley Gautreaux, director of CreativeCo Capital.
This hallway full of curiosity could propel the next leader in the field.
"There's so many opportunities out there and you don't know unless you know," said Tiara Davis, a radar airfield weather systems technician for the North Carolina National Guard. "So to have events like this, it really brings awareness to what's out there. And I wish I would have had something like this in high school and middle school, just so it could help me figure out my path a little bit sooner in life rather than later."
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.