The STEM field has always been male dominated, but a new free camp in our region is trying to change that.

The Girls Coding Project is aimed at teaching middle and high school-aged girls coding and computer programming. They hope many of the girls will pursue careers in the field.

Thursday, Deputy Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens joined the more than 40 girls from the region. Over the past two weeks, the girls built and programmed robots.

"It's amazing that there are these camps because these little girls, they don't know what they're going to do when they go to college, so now after going here they'll hopefully go into the STEM field and we need more people like that,” said East Syracuse Minoa High School Senior Casie St. Andrews.

The camp was sponsored by AT&T and the CNY STEM Hub.