Being the nerds that my family and I are, we started my Easter break watching the new "Captain America: Civil War" trailers and several theorists videos afterwards. During one of the invasive and inevitable commercials before YouTube videos, Emily Van Camp (Sharon Carter/Agent 13) and Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Mazimoff/ Scarlett Witch) appeared and explained an awesome contest for girls ages 15-18 interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs.

Marvel Studios instituted the "Girls Reforming the Future Challenge," aimed at sophomore, junior, and senior girls in high school. The girls were asked to submit a video proposal of their innovative STEM research project. The turnaround time was really quick; applications became available on March 11 and closed March 26.

"It's an opportunity to reform the future through positive change," Van Camp says in the introductory video.

But it's not just the opportunity. Five of the top winners of the contest will be invited to California to see the world premiere of "Captain America: Civil War." Then, the top winner will be offered an internship with Marvel Studios. Since Marvel is one of the top organizations that uses creative science application, it would be an ideal opportunity for a young woman with a STEM background, and a Marvel fan.

So, why is this important? Well we can start off with the fact that there is a considerable lack of women in the STEM fields, the highest percentage of women being 39 percent in chemical/material science and the lowest being 7.2 percent in mechanical engineering. It's not that women aren't able to do STEM work, or that they don't succeed in it (I haven't heard of a field that women don't succeed in). In fact female students are taking the same amount, if not more, higher level math and science courses as their male counterparts. It's simply that male students are usually more encouraged to take up STEM jobs, while women are usually encouraged to take up humanities jobs.

So when Marvel Studios, along with The National Academy of Sciences, Dolby, Synchrony Bank, and Broadcom, give young women currently interested in STEM fields the opportunity to soar, it's a big deal.

Not only that, but it's so cool to see Marvel Studios specifically doing that. As you remember from Jenelle Baron's article about "fake geek girls", girls are just as interested in comic books, video games, superhero movies, etc. as their male counterparts, but are often discouraged from liking them because they are "boy things." To see Marvel come out and talk specifically to their female fans and encourage them to partake in Marvel's culture and creation is inspiring and awesome. Marvel doesn't have the best track record of supporting their female fans, but of course they are improving (especially with the show "Agent Carter", and hopefully actual character development from Black Widow in the upcoming movie).

It thrills me that high school girls are getting the opportunity of a lifetime through one of my favorite movie studios. I can honestly say that if I were a couple years younger (and talented in the STEM fields) I would have taken this awesome challenge ASAP.