Sharon Coleman, founder and managing member of Mount Laurel-based publishing consultants, C Group, LLC, was the guest speaker, Aug. 2, 2002, for the closing ceremony of the FEMME Program (Females in Engineering, Methods, Motivation and Experiences) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology-Mount Laurel. Here are her remarks:

Thank you, Dr. Keel. I am delighted to be here with you this afternoon at this the fourth graduation ceremony of the FEMME Program at NJIT-Mount Laurel.

To the graduates, congratulations! You can all smile now. You have successfully completed another step along the road to lifelong discovery.

To the instructors, counselors and support staff, thank you. You can exhale now, that is, before preparing for your next assignment.

And to our corporate sponsors, you can write next year's check now, so that more young girls may have the opportunity to explore, cultivate and pursue their interests in computers, mathematics and engineering.

There's a mathematical axiom that says, "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line." Yet, the Road to Discovery is anything but a straight line. It also isn't as smooth as those test-drive commercials that we see on TV.

The Road to Discovery winds, and it turns. It undulates with our successes and failures, and is pitted with obstacles — some natural, most man-made.

The FEMME Program is designed to help young secondary-school girls navigate that road via careers in engineering and technology. The program provides a nurturing environment, where young girls are free to explore traditionally male-dominated academic programs. It is a program in which girls are free to challenge conventional wisdom and one in which girls are free to be themselves.