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Grad Slam

Graduate Division is proud to showcase the groundbreaking contributions of our exceptional graduate students.

Stay tuned for more information about our 2024 competition!

To get a preview, go to our Grad Slam 2023page and watch the 2023 The Future of Research video!

Overview

Grad Slam is a UC-wide public speaking competition and professional development opportunity in which graduate students describe their research or creative project in three minutes, with a maximum of one PowerPoint slide, to a non-specialist audience. Participating students are supported through public speaking workshops and feedback sessions, and progress through several preliminary and semi-final rounds. Contestants have the opportunity to win up to $5,000 at the UCR level, and another $7,000 at the UC-wide level of competition.

38%
Of participants are in the humanities, arts & social sciences
21%
Of contestants make it to the campus finals
26%
Of finalists are international students
It was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to come back even stronger next year!
Alexandria Costantino
2019 UCR Grad Slam Finalist
I recently applied for a fellowship that asked me to describe my project in just 400 words, so I pasted in my talk from Grad Slam. Last week I found out I won the fellowship - thanks Grad Slam!
Kevin Pham
2019 UCR Grad Slam Champion
Palm Desert was a great experience!
Salma Alavi
2019 UCR Grad Slam Finalist