It gives me great pleasure to welcome Carolyn Leighton and the Women in Technology International team to Smith on this auspicious occasion--the opening of the WITI Invent Center at Smith/Five Colleges. The WITI-Smith connection is one built on a shared and strongly held belief in the importance of advancing women and women’s career opportunities through technology.

This handsomely renovated space will house what WITI expects will be the first in a network of college and university-based centers but, in the meantime, Smith is the first such site, pioneering once again, as it did two years ago with the establishment of the first engineering program at a women’s college.


Through the activities and efforts of this center, women will be encouraged to choose careers in technology and technology-related fields;

Folks from the Smith Career Development Office, the Picker Engineering Program, the Women and Financial Independence program and the other four valley institutions will offer increased resources for job and internship searches;

Corporations will offer research and business development opportunities;

Smith alumnae and those of the other four colleges will be involved as corporate mentors, coaches;

And the Invent Center advisory committee and others from WITI will help students and alumnae expand their technology, business, professional and entrepreneurial skills through conferences and contacts with women and companies committed to helping women—and men—succeed.

I want to thank Barbara Reinhold, Irene Hill and other members of the CDO staff as well as Nancy Hellman, who is serving as the Invent Center’s consulting director, for their heroic work in coping with all the details necessary to prepare for this day. And I especially wish to salute Carolyn Leighton for her vision and persistence in bringing Smith and WITI together in this noble enterprise.