Posted at: 05/31/2012 5:13 PM | Updated at: 05/31/2012 6:22 PM By: John McLoughlin

UAlbany's Nanoscale College is joining forces with SEFCU and with Girls, Inc, for a five-year combination of summer camps in the high tech and even some paid internships to help about 150 young girls hopefully become tomorrow's scientists and engineers.

Seventh-grader Maiya Dargan is hoping that she is chosen among the first 30 girls

Maiya wants to be a computer scientist, and this brand-new program will expose these Albany girls to several weeks here at the Nanoscale Center, to hopefully encourage them all to pursue science.

Women are greatly under-represented in the so-called stem disciplines science, technology, engineering, and math.

In just a 10 year span community colleges saw a 25 per cent drop in stem degrees granted to women.

SEFCU, the credit union is donating $340,000 of the $800,000 cost of this new program.

This program will also give the girls year round guidance in business and personal skills

Those first 30 girls will be spending five days a week, for about four weeks on the Nanoscale campus, rubbing elbows with the scientists for about four weeks each summer, until there are 150 girls in the program with paid internships in years three through five.

See more here:

Girls Inc.and SEFCU to provide internships at Nano College