Youth-led Instagram account inspires spiritual transformation

How can a digital platform designed for fleeting interaction be used to spark spiritual curiosity, meaningful connections and real-world social impact?

Imagine a social media landscape where every post invites reflection on something greater than oneself. This is the vision explored by the students of University of California Davis’ Bahá’í Club through their Instagram profile. The page is a collection of stories, vibrant invitations to service, glimpses of collaborative study, and creative explorations of spiritual themes.

Since its creation in 2022, the @BahaiClubUCD account has evolved into a dynamic chronicle of youth-led initiatives alongside thoughtful reminders of life’s spiritual dimensions. Each update reflects the group’s commitment to a distinctly Bahá’í approach to social transformation—one that cultivates spiritual capacities through prayer and collaborative learning while also addressing practical community needs. 

“Having the Bahá’í activities as a way of empowering [myself] and others in their line of service has been a big shift in the way I look at those around me,” reflects club member Hadi Eguino. Crafted by and for young adults, the content asserts the nobility of youth and their capacity to contribute to community. 

“This idea of discourse and how we talk about spiritual ideas and have elevated conversations has been a really exciting area that the campus club has been able to contribute to,” says Andrew Curtright, a postdoctoral researcher who helps support the club.

Community of Purpose

The club’s approach to social media reflects its broader mission: “to create spaces that have meaningful conversations about our lives in our community, with people of all perspectives and backgrounds. We are learning about how these conversations lead to activities for community engagement.” The statement emerged when several club members gathered in Spring 2023 to collectively articulate a fresh vision, Sina Panah explains. Panah is a statistics major who helps to manage and grow the Instagram account.

Their decision to emphasize inclusivity was deliberate. “We see something that’s called the Bahá’í Club. Maybe it could strike people as something [only] for Bahá’ís, but in reality, it actually isn’t,” Panah notes. “We’re trying to create an organization where people from all different backgrounds—whether socially, racially, religiously, or gender—can come and give perspective on where they come from.”

Youth Nights: Virtual to Reality

The Baha’i Club’s Instagram presence serves as both documentation and invitation for their central activity: biweekly youth nights meant to cultivate meaningful connection and conversation. Held on Fridays, these gatherings take various forms—from discussions around Bahá’í literature to creative activities that spark reflection.

Eguino, a senior civil engineering student and member of the club’s “learning team” that leads coordination, describes the different activities shared during the youth nights. There is Ruhi study, group discussions, art nights surrounding a given topic, movie nights and devotionals, all geared towards sparking meaningful conversations among peers.

The consistency of these gatherings has been crucial to building momentum. Lena Treiber, a junior studying psychology and studio art, observed a shift over time: “In the beginning of the year, we thought of doing five events during our first quarter. We wanted to maintain consistency, and it can be very hard, especially being in college with all sorts of things going on.” 

That planning and regularity has yielded results. “This quarter, we’ve already had three people that have been wanting to host,” Treiber says. “This kind of active participation, the wanting to be involved and wanting to share whatever the other youth are interested in talking about—we’ve seen that growth, which has been really nice.”

Digital Storytelling with Substance

The Instagram account appears thoughtful in its design and content. Posts feature artistic photography paired with reflective quotes, announcements of upcoming activities, and glimpses of friendships forming through the club’s efforts.

For Panah, it represents a chance to tell a different kind of story. “Obviously social media gets a pretty bad rep these days because sometimes it might not be used with the best intentions,” he explains. “I open up Instagram and see some dude jumping off a two-story building onto a ping pong table. That doesn’t mean we can’t use it for good reasons.” 

Instead, the account becomes a window into spiritual community. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity for all of us to represent the Davis Bahá’í community,” Panah says. “I don’t care if someone is pulling up from down the street or from 30 minutes away, I want to know their story.”

Institutional Support & Organic Growth

Growth of the club has been supported by the local Bahá’í community of Davis. Andrew Curtright, a postdoctoral researcher who serves on the Davis, California, Local Spiritual Assembly, acts as a liaison between the assembly and the campus club.

“The assembly has definitely been wanting to give the club its own space, the youth their own space to take the club in whatever direction they feel is appropriate,” Curtright says. “At the same time, the assembly wants to be a source of support and doesn’t want to say, ‘Okay, you guys got it, good luck figuring it out.'” 

Finding the right balance between giving youth their independence while still providing support led to the formation of a learning team: students who coordinate overall activities while enabling others to take ownership of individual events. 

“We talked about our general direction and made sure to bring up that mission statement,” Curtright recalls. “It’s brief, but I think it really does provide a nice direction for us to think. The other really important thing was just setting that goal of five events.” The structure has allowed for both consistency and distributed ownership, creating space for more students to host events and contribute to the club.

Transformative Impact

For participants, the approach is creating something beyond the typical campus experience. “I finally understood what a community was,” reflects Treiber, who grew up moving frequently due to her father’s military career. “These Bahá’í communities are the same everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you go. I’ve been to Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, around Europe—all the Bahá’í communities have the same missions, though some are ahead of others with progress. It’s given me a sense of this broader vision of where the Bahá’í Faith is heading.” 

For Eguino, the club has created natural pathways to deepen friendships: “I feel like the space has brought opportunity for me to bring my friends in and have them be easily involved with other friends in the community.”

Perhaps the most significant impact is the shift in perspective that club members have experienced in their service. “I feel like I became a lot more optimistic [and] forgiving towards myself and towards other people,” says Panah. “I was pessimistic about how society was, but now I see so much potential.”