Thursina International Islamic Boarding School (IIBS) once again achieved international recognition through Team Crassiper at the International Future Leaders Competition (IFLC) 2026, organised by Sentosa Foundation in collaboration with the Arabic Literature Students Association of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta on July 25–26, 2026.
Presenting an innovation that uses Eichhornia crassipes, or water hyacinth, as a raw material for paper production, the five-member team was the only high school team to reach the final round. They went on to earn second place with a Gold Medal, as well as Best Paper and Best Poster awards.
Team Crassiper consisted of Rizal Akbar as team leader, M. Raihan Rasyadiya Azkaya, Althaf Alvaro Prayata Nurfaiz, Ghifari Achmad Raufikar, and Muhammad Harun Ismail. For the team, the achievement marked their first success at IFLC and proved that ideas developed by Thursina students can compete in an international forum.
IFLC 2026 carried the theme “The Role of Young Leaders in Creating Sustainable Impact and Driving Global Innovation.” The competition brought together 52 teams from nine countries. Each team went through a selection process based on substance and poster quality across nine subthemes before advancing to the presentation stage.
The best team from each subtheme then competed for a Gold Medal and continued to compete for a place among the overall top three.
Team Crassiper developed its idea from two environmental concerns: deforestation caused by the high demand for paper raw materials and the rapid spread of water hyacinth, which can cover water surfaces and disrupt aquatic ecosystems.
Through this concept, the students developed a paper-making innovation using an invasive plant as an alternative material, connecting two environmental problems within one solution.
Team mentor Ustaz Aziz Tanama, M.Pd., explained that preparations had begun in May, starting from proposal development to product creation and analysis. More intensive mentoring then began in June to prepare the team for the final round at UGM.
“Their strong curiosity was finally answered through a long process and the results they achieved. I felt very happy, emotional, and proud because they proved that curiosity can become the starting point of meaningful creation,” said Ustaz Aziz.
For Rizal Akbar, the experience showed that innovation requires the courage to test an idea until it can become a real solution.
“We wanted to show that a simple idea can be developed into something useful. This experience has made us more confident to keep exploring and developing new ideas,” he said.
Team Crassiper’s achievement reflects the Open-Minded value within Thursina IIBS’s RECODING Values through the courage to look at environmental problems from a different perspective and develop solutions from resources that are often overlooked.
At the same time, the team’s collaboration and creative process also reflected the Inspiring value by encouraging students to turn curiosity into energy for creating innovations that can benefit society and the environment.
Ustaz Aziz encouraged the students not to stop at one achievement.
“As long as the fire of curiosity continues to burn within us, we will never stop creating work that brings benefit to others and to the world,” he concluded. (Izz)
