(light swooshes) (bright music) - [Erica] Smart.

- [Kids] Girls.

- [Erica] Smart.

- [Kids] Girls.

- [Dara] These are two words you'll hear shouted every Friday, like a mantra at Dorothy J. Vaughn Academy of Technology.

- Quick review and then I'm gonna let you all get started on your projects.

- [Dara] Inside the library, Erica McLaren from the company's Smart Girls HQ leads a session for a room full of energetic fifth grade girls.

- They are working on a community problem, so we had some volunteers create videos on things that they think are issues in the community of Charlotte and the girls, they watch the videos and as a team they decided which problem they want to focus on.

So now they are in that brainstorming a solution process.

(children chattering) - I know.

- [Dara] McLaren says their organization uses exercises like this in their Smart Girls Squad program, because it's a gentle and fun way of introducing students to STEM.

- We're playing music, I'm telling jokes, I want them to have a relationship.

We're only there once a week, so it's like, it's a short time to get in there and really make an impact, but through that, unknowing to them, they're starting to loosen up and now they are building that confidence of, oh wait, I did just build this.

- [Dara] Throughout the year they've been able to build a lot, like Bead a DNA key chains, which teach them about genetic biology, colorful light up headbands that focus on electrical engineering, and.

- We built an electric fan and we got to build a circuit, the motherboard, it was really interesting.

- [Dara] Fifth grader, Amanda Dixon tells me she enjoys the hands-on activity she does with Smart Girls HQ and they encourage her to think positively.

- I've learned to work things out, 'cause you don't always get help all the time, so you have to learn how to work things out in hard circumstances, but things can still be fun and it's what you make of it.

- [Dara] As Dixon learns new skills, she's also gaining the confidence needed for a male dominated industry.

- I especially love this group, because they want to encourage girls that you can do anything you want to do.

It's not just boys.

You can be in science if you want to, and you can still be as much as the girl as you want to.

- [Dara] Some of her classmates agree.

- Usually boys keep saying girls can't do it, but we're proving them wrong.

- [Dara] And there's a lot to prove wrong.

The latest data from the National Science Foundation shows that 65% of people employed in STEM careers are men, and 35% are women.

- We found that we had more male students applying for the school, which increased a number of, the number of male students in each classroom.

So we were averaging four to five girls per classroom because it's a lottery base.

So we partnered with Smart Girls and decided what can we do to increase visibility of girls and females in STEM fields?

- So we're computer science immersion schools- - [Dara] As I took a stroll with Principal Toyia Matthews, she told me she's been impressed with what she's seen from the program.

- For me personally, I'm a female coming from a small town in Asheville, North Carolina, so I didn't know anything about STEM, STEM fields, just didn't really have that background knowledge - [Dara] For the company's founder and CEO, Abi Olukeye, that's one of the main reasons the program is already in four CMS elementary schools.

- I meet a lot of adults that say that they wish STEM was an option for them.

This started because I couldn't imagine my daughters growing up in a world that still had limited options for girls.

- [Dara] The same limited option she faced as a Nigerian teenager new to the US.

- When I went to that guidance counselor and I said, "Hey, I'm really interested in programming," her response was, "Well, you know that girls usually are not interested in programming" and I thought it was just really strange because I was still new to the United States and so my cultural background, I just was not used to something that girls couldn't do.

- [Dara] But she didn't let this discourage her.

Instead she used it as fuel to push her through two college degrees, a successful STEM career and in 2018, becoming the head of her own company.

- We hope that these girls walk away, one, discovering a lot more options that they knew they had, having confidence, you know, that self-efficacy that they can do it if they choose to.

- [Dara] Visiting schools isn't an all that Smart Girls HQ does.

They also create interactive STEM kits like these, that they sell internationally and they press powerful words onto T-shirts.

- The shirt says, "explorers, designer, scientist, engineer, founder and maker" and essentially those are our six pillars.

- [Dara] Although there are many words that the organization hopes the girls hold onto, these seven neon words hanging on the wall.

- "Dear Smart Girl, you can be anything."

- [Dara] Sum it up.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Dara Khaalid.