Grad Slam

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 three PowerPoint slides, 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.

Graduate Division is proud to collaborate with the Center for Ideas and Society, UCR Palm Desert, the Culver Center of the Arts, and other campus and system partners in this annual event showcasing the groundbreaking contributions of our exceptional graduate students.

Grad Slam 2020           Grad Slam 2019          Grad Slam 2018          Grad Slam 2017
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