Queen Rania joins 20 INJAZ students in an interactive leadership session conducted by a private sector volunteer at the University of Jordan

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Amman) A leader can choose to lead or follow. True leadership entails empowerment of people and decentralization of responsibilities so that development initiatives can be sustained on the long run, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah told 20 INJAZ students during a leadership session conducted by a private sector volunteer at the University of Jordan.

Queen Rania added that successful leadership also requires a clear vision and creative thinking to be able to affect change, mindsets and traditional working methods to achieve sustainable impact.

At an interactive leadership session, INJAZ students delivered a power point presentation to the Queen highlighting one of the projects which provided free medical services in Hatmieh next to Madaba.

Through the project, the students managed to recruit 11 volunteer doctors from Amman for one day to provide free medical services to this less privileged community.

Queen Rania also visited the INJAZ student company Expo at the University of Jordan Community Service Office, where students showcased companies that they established as part of training.

As part of the Junior Achievement Company Curricula, these companies were implemented through the mentorship of a private sector volunteer who helped students create their own ventures through market research, development of business plans and selling of stocks.

As part of her support to the empowerment of youth, Queen Rania first offered her support to the INJAZ program in 1999. INJAZ provides Jordanian students with the most valuable tools and skills so that they can enter the workplace and the global market as confident and skilled individuals capable of implementing their own ideas and establishing their own ventures.

In line with Her Majesty's support of the empowerment of women - another valuable segment of society, Queen Rania also visited the 'Queen Rania Learning Resource Center' which works towards the empowerment of women and the enhancement of their role in the economy.

The Center is one of 30 centers to be established all over of the Kingdom in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. Queen Rania visited one of the programs that provides training for teachers of the Ministry of Education certifying them with the International Computer Driving License (ICDL).

The Center also hosts a UNIFEM-Cisco academy program, which is a two-year gender based ICT program aimed at providing Jordanian women with professional computer networking skills to successfully compete with men in the professional ICT job market.

The project helps break socio-cultural barriers to women's participation in non-traditional careers in technology enabling them to play an active role in national development and poverty alleviation.

The program is currently being implemented in 10 academies. These academies cover high schools for girls, community colleges and the University of Science and Technology.

The UNIFEM-Cisco Networking Academy program was launched in March 2002 under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah.