Here is an overview of the different facets of Grad Slam from when & where, to eligibility, support, and prizes. Click on the category you are interested in.

• When & Where

  Preliminary Rounds:

  • Round I:   Monday, February 11th, 1-2pm (HUB 367)
  • Round II:  Monday, February 11th, 2:30-3:30pm (HUB 367)[
  • Round III: Tuesday, February 12th, 2-3pm (HUB 367)
  • Round IV: Tuesday, February 12th, 3:30-4:30pm (HUB 367)

  Semi-Final Rounds:

  • Tuesday, February 19th, 1-2pm (HUB 367)
  • Thursday, February 21st, 3-4pm (HUB 367)

  UCR Grad Slam Finals: Monday, March 4th, 3:00-6:00pm (Culver Center of the Arts in Downtown Riverside)

  UCR Palm Desert Exhibition: Thursday, April 4th, 6:00-8:00pm (UCR Palm Desert Campus)

  UCOP Grad Slam Finals: Friday, May 10th, 10:30am-1:30pm (LinkedIn Headquarters, San Francisco

• Eligibility & Participation

  All eligible UCR graduate students are invited to apply to participate in Grad Slam.  To be eligible participants must:

  • Be registered as full-time graduate students in good standing
  • Be no more than one year beyond normative time
  • Submit a completed online application to participate
  • Attend one GradSlam orientation and sign the video release
  • Be available to be present during one preliminary round, the UCR Finals, and the UCOP Finals (students may not miss class to present in a preliminary round)
  • Upload PowerPoint in accordance with guidelines onto the competition computer during one of the approved upload dates
  • Not have been selected as a UCR Grad Slam winner previously and not have been selected as a UCR Grad Slam 1st Runner-Up, UCR 2nd Runner-Up, or UCR Audience Choice Grad Slam winner in the 2018 competition.

  2019 Orientations will be held on:

  Monday, January 14th, 4:10-5pm (LFSC 1425)
  Tuesday, January 15th, 10:10-11am (Center for Ideas and Society)
  Wednesday, January 16th, 12:10-1pm (LFSC 1425)
  Friday, January 18th, 1:10-2pm (LFSC 1425)
  Tuesday, January 22nd, 2:10-3pm (LFSC 1425)
  Thursday, January 24th, 9:10-10:00am (Center for Ideas and Society)
  Monday, January 28th, 3:10-4pm (LFSC 1425)

• Application & Contestant Selection

  The online application is now available.  Applicants will be selected and scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications will be accepted through Monday, January 28th at 5pm.

  For your application, please prepare:

  •  Your tentative projected presentation title
  • A brief description of your presentation (no more than 3-4 sentences, does not have to be finalized)
  • Your availability for the orientations

  All those who attend orientation will then be invited to indicate their availability for the Preliminary rounds.

• Preparation & Support

  Grad Slam represents an important professional development opportunity. Students have the opportunity to hone their skills in public speaking, engaging a broad audience, PowerPoint preparation, and effective use of visual aids. To help students prepare, GradSuccess is offering the following workshops:

  Presenting Effectively with Visual Aids
  Tuesday, January 22nd, 12:10-1:00pm (LFSC 1425)

  Grad Slam Contestant Feedback Sessions
  Thursday, January 31st, 1:10-2:00pm (Center for Ideas and Society)
  Tuesday, February 5th, 4:10-5pm (LFSC 1425)

  To attend a feedback session, you must practice your Grad Slam presentation. Anyone who is not presenting will be asked to leave the room.

• Rules & Prizes

  Presentations can be no longer than 3 minutes. Contestants will have only a 3 second "grace period" after the 3 minutes have elapsed; if they continue speaking past the "grace period," they will be disqualified. Contestants may use a PowerPoint presentation with up to a maximum of three slides (not including title slide, which we will create for you). PowerPoints may include embedded audio or video but may not include animation. The judges will evaluate the presentations according to the following criteria:

  • Clear and effective presentation
  • Accessible to a general audience
  • Foregrounds research's intellectual significance or creative work's impact

  The prizes are all fellowships and regular rules of financial aid apply:

  • UCOP Grand Prize: $6,000
  • UCOP First Runner-Up: $3,000
  • UCOP Second Runner Up: $1,000
  • UCR Grand Prize: $5,000
  • UCR First Runner-Up: $2,000
  • UCR Second Runner-Up: $1,000
  • Audience Choice Award: $1,000
  • Up to 8 Honorable Mentions: $100
  • Poster Presentation Winner: $500
• Judges

  Ashley Beene, Contracts and Grants Analyst, BCOE, UCR

  Ashley Beene is currently a contracts and grants analyst in the Bourns College of Engineering at UCR. She participates in the preparation of hundreds of proposals per year, which equates to millions of dollars in research funding. She earned her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from UCR.

  Alicia Brotchie, OEM Western Regional Sales Manager, Corning Life Sciences

  Alicia Brotchie works for Corning Life Sciences as OEM Western Regional Sales Manager. She covers Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Western Canada. She has worked for Corning for 8 years and in the science sales industry for 13 years. She graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 2002. She now resides in Redlands and has two children, aged seven and ten.

  Allison Cantwell, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Institutional Research, UCR

  Dr. Cantwell is Assistant Vice Chancellor of Institutional Research at UC Riverside. Institutional Research is responsible for providing official campus data to campus leadership, stakeholders, and the public. Her office collaborates with a variety of academic departments and offices to provide insightful data analysis in support of student success efforts on and off campus. Allison also serves as UC Riverside’s Data Lead for the University Innovation Alliance, a coalition of 11 public research universities nationwide that strives to promote student success for low-income and first-generation student populations. She is co-chair of the data committee for the Growing Inland Achievement initiative which seeks to increase college preparedness, college completion, and career preparation for students in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Allison is a Chicagoland native and one of the few Midwestern transplants who misses the snow. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Riverside, where her research focused on the undergraduate student experience, student success, and social psychology.

  Wendy DeBoer, Director of Academic Programs, UC MEXUS

  Dr. DeBoer is in charge of academic programs that include the UC MEXUS-CONACYT doctoral and postdoctoral research fellowship programs. She received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Southern California and holds bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and Social Sciences from UC Irvine. Her dissertation There Goes the Neighborhood: Tattoo Removal, Stigma, and the Context of Culture examines relationships between geography, social class, race, and gender through the lens of tattooing and tattoo removal. Prior to attending graduate school, Dr. DeBoer worked at the Institute for International Education in Mexico City where she coordinated CONACYT fellowships. In joining UC MEXUS, she follows in the footsteps of her grandfather who spent much of his life forging U.S.-Mexico academic ties.

  Diane Elton, Retired Director of former International Education Center, UCR

  Diane Elton is the Director (Retired) of UC Riverside’s former International Education Center. Nationally, she serves on the Membership Engagement Committee of NAFSA: Association of International Educators which has oversight for the group’s international conference career center and resume mentoring in the field of international educational exchange. Additionally, Diane has been a NASFSA reviewer for juried sessions, posters and publications. She has also reviewed scholarship and opportunity applications for international agencies of Japan and the United States. For UCR, Diane has served on multiple scholarship/fellowship selection committees, including Fulbright and GradSlam panels. Currently, Diane serves as Board Secretary for the World Affairs Council of Inland Southern California and past president of the International Relations Council of Riverside, having led the group to Best in Nation status for its Sister City programs.

  Angelov Farooq, President for Board of Education, Riverside Unified School District

  Dr. Angelov Farooq is the elected President of the Board of Education for the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD). RUSD has an annual operating budget of about $500 million and governs 50 schools with 43,000 students. Angelov is an entrepreneur in sustainable development as a Partner at The Omnius Group. In 2013, Angelov was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown on the California Workforce Investment Board. In 2015, California's Chief Financial Officer, Controller Betty Yee, appointed him on her 10-member Council of Economic Advisors. Angelov earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley and both a master’s degree and Doctorate of Policy, Planning and Development degree from the University of Southern California. Angelov's lifelong commitment to education continued as he became the Founding Director of the University of California, Riverside Center for Economic Development & Innovation. He is a Founding Board of Director for a technology incubator/accelerator in downtown Riverside called ExCITE and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

  Kathleen Feeley, Professor of History, University of Redlands

  Dr. Feeley is Professor of History at the University of Redlands, specializing in modern U.S. history, gender, and media and popular culture. She is author of Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the New Woman and co-editor of When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in United States History. Professor Feeley is currently at work on a book about the Hollywood press corps in the mid-twentieth century. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York in 2004.

  Anna Finn, Special Assistant to the Provost, UCR

  Dr. Finn is the Special Assistant to the Provost at UC Riverside, where she manages a range of special projects, particularly those related to faculty leadership and diversity practices in faculty hiring. She earned her PhD in English from UC Irvine where her research focused on historical prosody and temporality in 19th- and 20th-poetry. During her degree, she worked as a graduate student researcher at UCHRI and focused on diverse career training for humanities graduate students.

  Aaron T. Gardner, Epidemiologist, Riverside County Public Health

  Aaron Gardner is an epidemiologist with 18 years of social science and epidemiological research experience including 12 years investigating communicable and chronic disease in Riverside County with the Riverside University Health System – Public Health. He completed his Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside and his MPH in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. He is a proud member of the Board of Directors of TruEvolution, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting for LGBTQ justice and advocating for the prevention and elimination of HIV/AIDS. He has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis with a particular focus on health equity and social justice issues.

  Sean Gil, Director, Career Center, UCR

  Sean is currently Director of the Career Center at UC Riverside, and recently opened a new state-of-the-art Career Center that serves all undergraduate and graduate students in Fall 2017. Sean has served as MPACE Pacific South Regional Director and awarded their “Rising Star Award” in 2011. Prior to joining UC Riverside, Sean worked at the Cal State Fullerton Career Center as Associate Director and as the Associate Director of the MBA Career Center at UC Irvine. Sean has also lived and worked in Taipei and Hong Kong, with a distinguished career in investment banking and retained executive search. Sean graduated Honors with a degree in Asian Studies from UC Santa Barbara and completed his Master’s in Public Administration at Cal State Fullerton.

  Jay Gilberg, Instructor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, UCR

  Jay Gilberg was the Founder and CEO of ABCOW Staffing, one of the largest independent staffing firms in San Diego CA for 20 years. ABCOW was awarded the INC500 designation as one of the nation's 500 fastest growing privately held companies over a 5-year period. The company specialized in direct-hire and temporary staffing services in the accounting and administrative areas. After selling the company, Gilberg continues to pursue his entrepreneurial passion as an Instructor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UC Riverside, where he assists students, faculty and small business entrepreneurs in commercializing their technologies. In addition to teaching and advising startups, he oversees his multi-location real estate business.

  Jay Goth, Managing Partner, Forentis Fund

  Jay Goth is managing partner of Forentis Fund, a life science venture fund focused on precision medicine. He is a serial entrepreneur, having been involved in dozens of startups in the energy, technology, biotechnology and financial industries. He supports an innovation center in Murrieta, California that is focused on health care technologies, and works closely with university researchers, private companies and fellow investors to advance the promise of precision medicine. As a founder of Murrieta Genomics, Jay is currently building a next generation genomic sequencing incubator in the Murrieta Innovation Center. He is a board member of several for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

  Gladis Herrera-Berkowitz, Director of Student Engagement, Undergraduate Education, UCR

  Gladis Herrera-Berkowitz is the Director of Student Engagement in Undergraduate Education. In her role she supports student involvement in undergraduate research, prestigious scholarships and awards, the UCR Undergraduate Research Journal, Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship program. During her tenure at UCR Gladis has also served as the Director of University Honors, Director of Instructional Development, and Assistant Director of the CNAS Graduate Student Affairs Center. Gladis earned her B.A. in Political Science from UC Davis and an M.A. in History from the University of San Diego.

  Dallas Holmes, Judge on Assignment by the Chief Justice, State of California

  The Honorable Judge Dallas Holmes is a Judge of the State of California on assignment by the Chief Justice who sits on civil jury trials here in Riverside County. He sat in the historic Court House in Riverside for 11 years, and, before this, was a partner and Chair of the Public Law Department at Best, Best & Krieger, a 200-member law firm with offices from San Diego to Sacramento. He was Vice President of The State Bar of California and a member of the Judicial Council.

  Denise Machin, Director of the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company

  Dr. Machin earned her Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside in 2018. Dr. Machin is the first woman Director of the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company, the third largest collegiate ballroom dance program in the country, and she also serves as adjunct faculty in Pomona College’s Physical Education Department. Dr. Machin was a finalist in UCR Grad Slam’s inaugural year.

  Emily McEwen, Public History Professional

  Dr. McEwen has been working as a public history professional in southern California for over a decade. After completing her B.A. in History and French from Whittier College (Whittier, CA), she earned her M.A. in Public History in 2008 and Ph.D. in History in 2014 from UC-Riverside. While in graduate school, Emily worked as Curator of History at the Mission Inn Foundation & Museum; the National Historic Landmark Mission Inn Hotel was also the subject of her dissertation. Most recently, Emily held the position of Historic Resource Specialist with Orange County Parks where she managed two historic parks, including the National Historic Landmark Helena Modjeska Historic House & Gardens. While with Orange County Parks, Emily received the 2015 Director's Award for Excellence for her part in writing and designing interpretive panels at the Irvine Ranch Historic Park, as well as co-directing an NEH Common Heritage digitization grant.

  Rafik Mohamed, Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUSB

  Dr. Mohamed is currently Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, San Bernardino. Dr. Mohamed previously taught in the sociology departments at Clayton State University and at the University of San Diego, where he was twice voted outstanding professor of the year. He received his PhD in criminology, law and society from the University of California, Irvine. He is author of Black Men on the Blacktop: Race and the Politics of Basketball and, with Erik Fritsvold, Dorm Room Dealers: Drugs and the Privileges of Race and Class.

  Nora Moti, Retired Director of Education and Nursing Research, Kaiser, Fontana, and Ontario Medical Centers

  Nora Moti started her Registered Nursing career upon graduating from Riverside Community College in 1979. She received her Bachelors in Nursing in 1984 and her Masters of Nursing in 2003 from California State University, San Bernardino. She served on the Institutional Review Boards of CSUSB and Southern California Kaiser Permanente Regional Center. She also served as the Vice President and the President of CSUSB’s Rho Beta Chapter of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. In 2008, she received “The Inland Empire Nursing Leader Award” from The Riverside Press-Enterprise. The same year, she also received “The Southern California Hospital Hero Award” produced by National Health Foundation. She co-authored a research project titled “Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice Patterns.” In recent years, she served as the president of The Moti Center for Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine and taught online courses in nursing ethics for Zirve University in Turkey. Nora likes travelling and mentoring her grandson and granddaughter in reaching their educational goals in engineering and medicine, respectively.

  Drew Oberjuerge, Executive Director, Riverside Art Museum

  Drew Oberjuerge has been the Executive Director of the Riverside Art Museum since 2013. Under her leadership, the museum has doubled its budget, received major grants from the Irvine Foundation and from the Getty Foundation as part of its Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA program, and has opened ambitious new shows such as works on paper from the collection of Cheech Marin. A native of the Inland Empire, she has previously worked with significant art institutions such as LACMA, and created an arts-for-wellness program for Jefferson Transitional Programs in Riverside. Drew received her BA in Italian Literature and Political Science from UCSD and her Master’s in Public Administration from USC. 

  Elio Palacios Jr., Riverside Attorney and RMM/Inlandia Board Member

  Elio Palacios Jr., a graduate of UC Davis School of Law, is an attorney practicing in Inland Southern California in the areas of business, corporate and commercial transactions, and litigation. He is president of the Board of Directors of the Inlandia Institute. He also served for eight years on the Riverside Metropolitan Museum board, where he was instrumental in the formation of the Harada House Foundation, and served on the City of Riverside Code of Ethics Review Committee.

  Veronique Rorive, UCR UC-Mexico Initiative Assistant Director

  Veronique Rorive is the Assistant Director of the University of California’s Mexico Initiative (UC-Mexico Initiative). She facilitates the Initiative’s research and academic exchange programs, and works with colleagues system-wide to strengthen the UC’s relationship with Mexico through establishment of strategic partnerships in academia, government, and industry and foundations. Before coming to the Initiative, she served as Director of Educational Initiatives in Undergraduate Education (2012-2014) and oversaw the fostering and tracking of a campus-wide undergraduate research program at UC Riverside; and previous to that as Assistant Director of the Center for Conservation Biology (2002-2012), where she helped develop and manage multi-investigator and multi-disciplinary research projects in the Yucatan Peninsula. Her own background is in anthropology, with a specialization in natural resources that since 1991 provided her with the opportunities to work on multi-scale and binational community development projects throughout the Yucatan Peninsula.

  Cati Porter, Executive Director, Inlandia Institute

  Cati Porter is a poet, essayist, and executive director of the Inlandia Institute, an Inland Empire non-profit organization devoted to recognizing, supporting, and expanding regional literary activity in all its forms. She is the author of the poetry collections Seven Floors Up and My Skies of Small Horses as well as seven chapbooks, most recently The Body, Like Bread. Her third full-length collection of poetry is forthcoming in 2019 from CavanKerry Press. Recent essays have appeared in Zocalo Public Square, The Manifest-Station, and Salon. She received her MFA from Antioch University in Los Angeles and currently lives in Riverside, California.

  Jeremy Standerfer, Assistant Principal, Riverside STEM Academy

  Jeremy Standerfer is a UC Riverside alum (Environmental Science) with more than 20 years of experience as a K-12 educator. He was one of the 6 original educators that initiated the STEM Academy in 2011 and continues to collaborate with the instructional team to build the program in an administrative role, now recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School. Jeremy’s instructional experience ranges from 6^th grade through high school, specializing in chemistry, earth sciences, environmental sciences and engineering and was named Riverside Unified Teacher of the Year in 2014. Throughout his career he has partnered with higher education to train pre-service science educators and has served as a coach to youths in a variety of pursuits, including multiple sports, Academic Decathlon and as an award-winning coach of multiple regional champion Science Olympiad teams. He is a long-time resident of Riverside with his wife Stephanie and their two children. 

  Paul M. Wendee, Managing Director, Paul M. Wendee & Associates, LLC

  Dr. Wendee is the Managing Director of Paul M. Wendee & Associates, LLC, a corporate finance, private equity, and management consulting firm which he founded in 1998. He has been an entrepreneur, investment banker, securities analyst, and private equity fund manager for 37 years. He publishes an award-winning investment newsletter, the Intrinsic Value Wealth Report, www.IVWealthReport.com. He is the creator of Value Driver Theory, a new way of understanding and strategically thinking about business; and teaches courses in business, investments, economics, entrepreneurship, and finance to university students worldwide. He founded the Value Driver Institute and Research and Educational Expedition Programs (VDI/REEP), a non-profit organization with a mission to conduct research on enterprise value driver theory and the enterprise value creation process; and to take the business incubator concept to places in the world where business incubators are not commonly found, but where they are needed the most. Paul is also an angel investor and is an active investor with ArchAngels Investors.

  Christine Victorino, Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff in the Office of the Chancellor, UCR

  Dr. Victorino is Associate Chancellor, and former Assistant Vice Provost in the Office of Undergraduate Education, at UCR. She previously held administrative leadership and academic development roles at Pitzer College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Stanford, and universities in Canada. She earned her Ph.D. in education at UC Santa Barbara and also holds a master’s degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Toronto and Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

  Emilio “Joe” Virata, Assistant Dean of Students, UCR

  Joe Virata has worked at the University of California, Riverside since 1995, providing support to students as they define their personal and educational goals within UCR's diverse community. Joe's work centers on advocacy and social change, emphasizing leadership development and community building. He brings a background of campus and community organizing, with experiences in social services, labor organizing, and educational advocacy. Before coming to Riverside, Joe served as Director of Asian Pacific Student Services at Loyola Marymount University, Assistant Coordinator of Student/Community Projects at UCLA's Asian American Studies Center, and as community organizer for the Asian American Drug Abuse Program, the Pacific Asian Alcohol Program, and as field organizer with the Service Employee's International Union.

  Selin Yildiz-Nielsen, Co-founder and President of Glocally Connected

  Dr. Yildiz-Nielsen, co-founder and president of Glocally Connected has worked in international education for the last 20 years as a director, professor, coordinator, manager, teacher and consultant. Her work with refugees started in Iowa International Center, a non-profit organization dedicated into making the immigrant and refugees’ lives easier. With grants from Mason City Human Rights Commission and Housing and Urban Development, she has lead research that made an impact in the refugees’ lives. Dr. Nielsen later on has lead projects providing educational assistance to teachers in Syrian refugee camps in Southeast Turkey during her time as a visiting professor there. Her work carried out in four camps and included training in cross-cultural integration, conflict, and trauma management. She has also presented in conferences and invited talks about refugee education in the United States and the world. Throughout her career, she has published articles and book chapters related to international education. Her latest work “Host Country Citizens’ Attitudes Towards Refugees and the Public Policies that Shape Them” is in process.