HSE Students Win Eventiada Awards 2025
Following the results of the 2025 Eventiada international communications awards, students of the School of Communication at HSE’s Faculty of Creative Industries won in key youth categories, including Student of the Year and Best Youth ESG Project. The award ceremony took place at the end of November at the press centre of MIA Rossiya Segodnya.
The awards have been running for more than ten years and bring together projects in PR, corporate communications, marketing, and social initiatives.
This year, students of the HSE School of Communication delivered confident results, placing in 11 shortlists with their projects—in the categories Student of the Year, Youth Team of the Year, Best Youth Project, Best Youth ESG Project, and Best Youth Advertising Project.
For the School of Communication, taking part in the award has become an established educational practice. Students and lecturers participate as contestants, speakers, and experts, while the award itself serves as a platform where they can test their skills in a competitive environment and make themselves known in the professional community.
Rimma Pogodina, Deputy Director of the Student Internship Centre at the HSE School of Communication
‘Over the past few years, we have significantly improved our results: for three years in a row, students of the Advertising and Public Relations programme have won in the Student of the Year category. Last year, the undergraduate and postgraduate team Da.My was named Youth Team of the Year, and this year they once again confirmed their status with the communication project ‘Clean Traces in the History of Water’ for the nationwide ‘Water of Russia’ campaign.
The students’ victories reflect a high level of training and the practice-oriented nature of our teaching. Professional festivals and competitions allow them to experience real competition, present themselves as specialists ready to tackle complex tasks, and demonstrate their competencies to future employers.’
Student of the Year
The HSE School of Communication has been victorious in the Student of the Year category for three years running. This year, the winner was Sofia Polikushina, a 2025 graduate of the Advertising and Public Relations programme.
‘Alongside me in the shortlist were talented and ambitious students, and as a student it is deeply meaningful for me to receive such high recognition of my achievements from the award’s experts. It is incredibly motivating for future accomplishments. May all future participants always remember their motivation and maintain their determination in achieving their cherished goals! Everything will work out if you try very, very hard,’ said Sofia Polikushina.
The winner noted that in both academic and professional terms, the knowledge she gained from the various disciplines of the Advertising and Public Relations programme proved invaluable—from brand marketing and integrated communications management to administrative and legal foundations and communication theory. It was precisely this combination of fields, she said, that formed a solid professional foundation.
Best Youth ESG Project
The project ‘Clean Traces in the History of Water’ by the student team Da.My was named the best in this category. The participants created the concept for an educational exhibition dedicated to responsible attitudes towards water resources: they developed the idea, the spatial logic, guided tour scenarios, interactive elements, and audience activations.
Their success was the result of combining experience with effective role distribution: some team members worked on analytics and research, others on the creative concept, and others on the visual component. Thanks to this structure, the project turned out to be comprehensive and coherent.
‘A major factor in our victory was the knowledge we gained at the HSE School of Communication. We built a full communication ecosystem, conducted deep competitor and benchmark analysis, and used trend-watching. Most of our time was spent on analytics: we collected a large dataset on water pollution, studied public attitudes towards environmental initiatives, and identified strong museum practices. This foundation became the basis of our concept. And of course, the strong support of our supervisor, Rimma Pogodina, gave us tremendous confidence,’ concluded team member Arina Khaikhan, a second-year student of the Integrated Communications programme.
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