Nasywa Nadia Shafira, a 2021 student of Communication Science at Diponegoro University (UNDIP), has brought pride to her university on the international stage. Together with her teammates, Sherly and Naila, she won the Global Youth Voices: Digital Interfaith Storytelling Campaign 2025, a video competition organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF), a New York-based organization in the United States.

This competition is part of the World Interfaith Harmony Week 2025, an initiative by the United Nations (UN) that promotes interfaith dialogue and harmony. The event invited youth from around the world to deliver messages of peace, tolerance, and belief diversity through short videos of 2–3 minutes. The video created by Nasywa’s team was selected and featured in a global webinar on February 26, 2025, after a rigorous selection process that ended with the submission deadline on February 21, 2025.

Nasywa’s motivation to join the competition stemmed from her belief that communication can be a powerful tool to bridge differences among people.

“I believe communication can build bridges between differences. This wasn’t just a contest—it was a space to voice what truly matters,” she shared.

In their creative process, the team chose a professional webinar-style video format to make it feel relatable and relevant to a global audience. This concept was also their way of showing that messages of tolerance can be conveyed calmly, clearly, and yet still be emotionally impactful.

However, the journey toward the final work was not without challenges. The biggest hurdle they faced was managing their time between academic responsibilities and an intense video production schedule within a tight deadline. Packed lecture schedules, heavy assignments, and differing work hours among team members made coordination tricky.

“It was hard to manage time—especially when everything else was so hectic. But because we worked together and supported one another, we managed to keep going,” said Nasywa.

Despite the entire production process being conducted online, the team’s solidarity remained strong. With intensive coordination via digital platforms and clearly defined roles, everything ran smoothly.

As a Communication student, Nasywa felt that her academic background played a major role in her achievement. Courses like Public Speaking, Intercultural Communication, and Communication Planning and Research (KPR) helped her structure narratives, deliver messages effectively, and maintain the quality of both verbal and visual communication throughout the video creation process.

“From this competition, I realized that communication science can absolutely be taken to the global stage. Words spoken sincerely can become a force that changes the world,” she reflected.

For Nasywa, this accomplishment is not the end, but a starting point for future creativity. She hopes her fellow Communication students and incoming freshmen won’t hesitate to take on new opportunities—even in uncharted territories.

“Don’t be afraid to start small. Our voices matter—and through communication, we can be part of real change.”