The five-year extension of the grant program offered by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah to Jordanian students from Athens Information Technology was announced on Monday, 12 October 2009. The number of grants allocated by AIT, in recognition of Her Majesty in 2005, is increasing from 14 to 17 per year. The agreement was reached during a meeting with Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and the Executive Director of AIT Mr. Thanassis Zesimopoulos, who visited Jordan as part of a delegation representing the college to assess the results of the scholarship program – which, during the past four years, has benefited more than 90 students who have joined AIT’s masters degrees, executive training programs, and summer schools. The grant initiative was created in recognition of Queen Rania’s efforts on education and development of modern technological skills for young people, and was inaugurated by Her Royal Majesty during her visit to AIT in December 2005. During their meeting on 12 October 2009, Queen Rania highlighted the depth of historical relations between Jordan and Greece and gave her thanks to AIT for this initiative. Mr. Zesimopoulos was praised on the academic level of the Jordanian students and beneficiaries of the grants, stressing AIT's interest to strengthen this cooperation by increasing the number of grants in the coming years. On the same evening, a reunion of Jordanian alumni took place at the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Church. Over 30 alumni attended, with their friends and family, Royal Court representatives, and the Metropolitan himself, who all stressed the importance of strong alumni relations and the alumni’s role as AIT ambassadors in their country. The attaché from the embassy of Greece in Jordan also attended the alumni reunion.
Finally, for the first time Open Day presentations of AIT and its academic programs took place at two Amman universities. AIT academic faculty and Royal Court representatives introduced AIT and the Queen Rania Scholarship Program to over 100 fourth year IT students at the University of Applied Sciences and over 70 students at the University of Jordan, who inquired about AIT’s Master of Science programs and summer schools. A 2006 MBIT alumnus described his experience at AIT, the program, and life in Greece. Additional meetings were held with the respective board of directors and professors on potential collaborations between Athens Information Technology and the two universities. AIT's commitment to Jordanian students will continue as they are considered an important part of AIT's international student body.
