Friday morning at Fort DeRussy in Waikiki, a group of girls from across Oahu got to see a glimpse of military life as soldiers from the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command hosted them for “Army Day,” one of the last events of a two-week summer camp run by the Youth Impact Program.

Before running through a series of stations that included information on physical fitness training, radios and military history, they watched a promotion ceremony for soldiers from the unit that was opened by an all-female color guard. The unit’s commander, Maj. Gen. Brian Gibson, said it “wasn’t by chance, it was for role models.”

The nationwide YIP has 44 programs across 15 universities run by NCAA student-athletes, university officials, military service members and public school teachers who volunteer for the program. But Hawaii is the only state currently running a program for girls. The young program, for girls in grades 5-8, is in just its second year.

The two-week camp, held on the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus, was packed with activities. One day featured yoga; another featured a hip-hop dance instructor. The program carried a heavy mixture of instruction in academics and athletics taught by local teachers and members of the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine.

Off the court, they learned about math, science and technology — and in some cases how they can relate to what happens on the court.

Taylor Sagapolutele, 12, from Kalihi, said she was particularly interested in learning how sports teams use data to build teams and plan strategies.

Joshua Kang, YAP’s deputy director for Hawaii, said, “Normally, we target boys and inner-city youth, and then we do football. Then we got buy-in from Coach (Laura) Beeman and then our sponsors. Our donors really wanted to do this with girls to give these children more opportunities.” Beeman is coach of the UH women’s basketball team.

Kang said that it stands apart from other programs: “Most of these basketball camps is like a three-day thing, and it’s like, ‘All right, you have to pay $200,’ but here it’s free. So all the parents have to do is sign their kid up, and then everything falls into place. And the kids just come here free of mind and have fun.”

Olivia Davies, a guard for the Rainbow Wahine, volunteered with the program both years.

“In Hawaii especially … there’s a lot of at-risk youth, especially females, and they don’t have resources,” Davies said. She said it was important to her to teach the kids “they can be themselves and it’s OK, whatever that is.”

For UH freshman Brooke Murrell, this was her first experience with the program. She said that she remembered being shy when she was the girls’ age, and said, “I like being around kids, seeing their personalities and seeing how you can be that person to help motivate them. So that’s really why I came here, to bring up the energy with them.”

Between classroom activities and basketball, women volunteering with the program held conversations with the girls within what they called “The Circle of Trust.”

Sgt. 1st Class Alicia Brumfield, one of the volunteers, said, “We talked about boundaries, and talking about how they can use their voice to share what their boundaries are — and how it relates to anything — and then also how they can help others in their community with explaining their boundaries.”

This year the Pentagon is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Women’s Armed Service Integration Act, which allowed women to serve in the military on a permanent basis. But the military only in the past 10 years opened up all its positions to women, and the service still struggles with numerous cases of sexual misconduct and harassment in the ranks.

Brumfield said that when talking to potentially impressionable young girls, “it is something that you want to try to get into their thoughts, that they have a voice. If something makes them uncomfortable, there’s something they don’t like, they can use their voice — they don’t have to just go along with it because they are female. Because a lot of times, they get the ‘Oh, just be nice’ kind of thing that we’re often conditioned in.”

Joe Lileikis, the academic lead for YIP’s Hawaii programming, teaches at Niu Valley Middle and, like most of the instructors, is a former UH student-athlete — in his case on the swim team. All the academic instructors are public school teachers.

Lileikis said that taking the kids, who may not have been able to envision themselves being able to go to college, to the UH campus and exposing them to a mixture of ideas and professions while playing basketball with athletes who compete nationally “brings in the academics, the mindset … (of) dreaming big, about going beyond yourself, being something that that you can see a bigger version of yourself. And that’s why it’s important for both the boys and the girls.”

Haley Pada-Ahuna, 11, from Waimanalo, said that she wants to go to college and “probably would want to be like a doctor, scientist or a police officer.”