5 November 2026

Students from Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (GrSU) were among the winners of the International Student Media Contest and the 4th Russian-Belarusian "Media Industry" Forum. These events, which brought together talented young people, took place from September 28 to October 2 at Pskov State University, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

The primary goal of the forum, themed "Voices of the Young: The Energy of Unity," was to foster creative connections among university students from Belarus and Russia who are pursuing careers in journalism.

This year, the event brought together 100 participants from 22 Russian universities, 10 Belarusian universities, and Kyrgyzstan. Yanka Kupala State University was represented by five students from the Faculty of History, Communication, and Tourism: fourth-year students Egor Gorbatyuk and Sofiya Ovsyanik (majoring in Information and Communication), and third-year students Ivan Stefanovich, Ariana Lanina, and Darya Ptashits (majoring in Journalism).

The organizers prepared a variety of engaging activities for the participants, including a three-day educational program and city tours.

As part of the forum, a creative competition titled "Media Industry" was held. Participants competed in five categories: "Photography," "Video," "Graphics," "Media Project," and "Text." In total, 80 entries were submitted from the two countries. Ariana Lanina, a student from Yanka Kupala State University, emerged as the winner in the "Text" category.

Furthermore, throughout the forum, the participants worked in teams. Divided into 10 mixed groups, the students were tasked with developing their own media resource. The winning team included Darya Ptashits, a student at Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (GrSU). The group developed a unique application designed to facilitate communication between participants from Russia and Belarus.

"The task was to create an information resource for the Union State that would feature news from both Belarus and Russia. Our team decided to take a slightly different approach: we built an application where participants from the two countries can communicate with ease," explained Darya Ptashits.

By decision of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the entire winning team will travel to Moscow in the summer of 2027 to attend a "Summer School of Journalism."

Congratulations to the students from Yanka Kupala State University on their victory! We wish them many more creative ideas, professional accomplishments, and brilliant successes!