CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For many people in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also known as STEM, the decision to study it came before college.
A national study shows 78% of college students say that they decided to study STEM in high school or earlier. 21% decided as early as middle school.
For Abi Olukeye, she's hoping to help elementary school girls make a move into STEM at a young age.
“What research says is, unfortunately, by age 12, girls are already deciding whether they want to pursue STEM or not. So if we're not talking about careers before, then we've lost them already," she said.
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Olukeye is the founder of Smart Girls HQ, which focuses on empowering girls throughout school. She and a group of volunteers visited a classroom of fifth-grade students at the Vaughn Academy of Technology to get the gears turning.
The work to encourage girls to get into STEM careers seems to be working; the US Census Bureau says women have made gains in the workforce of STEM, from just 8% of women workers in STEM fields in 1970 up to 27% as of 2019. But it's still a male-dominated arena and volunteers like Rhonda Johnson with the Links chapter in Charlotte hope they can provide the push needed to get more young women involved.
“I was good in math and science. I taught everything in the house of equipment, whatever. I mixed up drinks, chemicals, and chemicals and all this stuff. So my dad noticed that in me first," said Johnson.
Olukeye said that kind of recognition and investment in STEM-related interests can be transformative for those fields in the future.
“If you get to play around with it, and you see that, oh, that's not rocket science. They just built computers in their last module. And you can see the girls go 'Whoa, that is amazing,' right?”
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.