DETROIT ? A room full of girls beamed with excitement as they prepared for Camp Infinity?s graduation ceremony June 27 at University of Detroit-Mercy, connecting to the web pages they created, loading the game level they designed, or making the final touches on programming robots.

Camp Infinity is a technology camp supported by the Michigan Council for Women in Technology Foundation, an organization that works across the state with women in technology at all stages of their careers.

Camp Infinity started eleven years ago with only 35 campers at Lawrence Technological University. In June and July, Camp Infinity coached more than 170 girls at four different locations – Lawrence Tech, University of Detroit-Mercy, Wayne State University, and the Livingston Educational Service Agency.

Camp Infinity is a unique opportunity for these girls to get hands-on experience with technology just as they are beginning to consider career choices. Studies show as young women progress through high school, they tend to shy away from more difficult STEM ? Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – courses. What Camp Infinity does is get young women to think about careers in STEM, hosting girls from fifth grade up.

Camp Infinity also helps girls form critical relationships that further connects them to STEM. The weeklong Camp Infinity gives girls the time to get to know like-minded girls who also love technology. They also get to know other young female role models who are involved in technology. Campers are submerged in activities that allow them to develop their skills, and find delight in their progress at the end of the week. The camp also incorporates free programs into the curriculum that are accessible after the girls return home.

This year the schedule was primarily composed of web design with HTML and KompoZer, video game programming in Alice 2, and robotics programming for a jousting competition. However, the camp found other ways to incorporate the Southeast Michigan IT community. The campers lunched with career female IT professionals from Cisco, General Motors, AT&T, and Google. Campers also received vehicle demos from Detroit automakers as well as participated in various career discussions.

The program bore fruit with this year?s campers.

?Overall, I liked the robots because everything was so hands-on,? said Hailee P, age 12. ?The robot competitions were nerve racking, but very fun. I am so glad I came to camp.?

Many counselors are members of the MCWT ?GET IT? program or web design competition participants who plan to study technology in college. The ?GET-IT? high school program stands for Girls Exploring Together Information Technology. It is an after-school team activity designed to encourage high school girls to consider and pursue a career in IT.

As girls will continue to benefit from the remaining camps this summer – the evolution of Camp Infinity continues to impact girls more and more with each camp.

Hopefully this impact will be felt in STEM fields as groups like the MCWT work to make Michigan the No. 1 state for women in technology.

Put simply by 11-year-old Ashleigh S: ?Camp Infinity is the BEST!?

Associate Editor Nicole Johnson leads MITechNews.Com?s efforts to foster STEM education, as well as provides coverage for her fellow women in computing. If you have a story idea for Nicole, email [email protected] Follow Nicole on Twitter: @tech_nicole