CSU Grad Slam Competition

Cal Poly Humboldt California State University Grad Slam Three-minute Thesis Competition with a map

Cal Poly Humboldt Grad Slam March 22, 2024

Cal Poly Humboldt Grad Slam Winners Announced

We're excited to announce our winners of the 2024 Cal Poly Humbodlt Grad Slam! Congratulations to all! Their powerful and innovative presentations connected with the judges and viewers. Our top two winners presenting in the CSU-wide Grad Slam competition are Fortunato and Baron Parks from the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Don't forget to show your support for our top two Lumberjacks as they compete in the State-wide competition hosted by CSU Long Beach on May 3rd, 2024 (live on Zoom). Let's cheer them on!

Graduate Programs

Student Resources

Cal Poly Humboldt has many resources to help prepare you for this competition. In addition to the info sessions and office hours, check out these additional resources below.

Academic Career and Advising Center

As part of the competition you will need a professional headshot as well as professional attire. The Career Clothing Closet in Library 28, Monday through Friday, 11am to 1pm, where students can find FREE, gently-used career clothing in a variety of shapes and sizes. Additionally, the ACAC in collaboration with the library often host pop-up professional headshot sessions. For more information, check out the ACAC website.

Writing Support from the Humboldt Writing Studio, Library 1st Floor

The Writing Studio provides free writing support for Humboldt students at any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming to final touches. Students at all levels and in all majors can benefit from discussing their writing projects with our friendly, trained writing consultants. We offer in-Person and Zoom consultations for live conversations about your writing and email consultations for written feedback. Open Sunday - Friday, day and evening hours.

Scoring Resources

In order to set students up for success, the Office of Graduate Studies is providing the Judging Criteria and Rubric ahead of submissions and competition. Please see each below. Any questions can be directed to hsugrad@humboldt.edu.

Rubric & Judging Criteria

5th Annual CSU-Wide Grad Slam Competition

Following up on last year’s successful event, the 5th annual CSU Grad Slam will take place May 9, 2025, hosted in virtual format by California State University San Bernardino. Grad Slam is a fast-paced and exciting event in which graduate students present their research, scholarship, and creativity in no more than three minutes, using just one slide. Grad Slam participants gain valuable experience delivering a professional presentation and competing for cash prizes and statewide notoriety.

The CSU Grad Slam aligns with Three Minute Presentation competitions that have become a staple of the university graduate student experience to promote and exhibit graduate student research and scholarly activities across more than 200 universities worldwide. First initiated in 2008, this approach to developing the skills to describe the research and scholarly activities to a general audience has grown to provide an accessible way to display and celebrate the variety and complexity of graduate student scholarship on these campuses.

The top two winners from individual CSU campus competitions from over 20 campuses will deliver their presentations in front of panels of judges.

4th Annual Cal Poly Humboldt Grad Slam Competition

March 22nd from 2:00 pm- 4:00 pm in NHE 102 (Goodwin Forum)

Cal Poly Humboldt’s Grad Slam Competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by graduate students. The competition supports students' capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes (or less), in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience. For some, it helps to develop an "elevator speech" for their research.

Students presented their research in three minutes or less in front of a live audience. One winner was chosen from each college with a tie for the top winners in the College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences. The top two winners from the Cal Poly Humboldt Grad Slam Competition will move on to compete in the CSU-Wide Grad Slam Competition.

Registration

Registration to participate in the 2024 Cal Poly Humboldt Grad Slam Competition closed on February 29th.

Eligibility

All active master's and doctoral students who are conducting independent research or projects, including independent research projects done for a graduate-level class, are eligible to participate in Grad Slam competitions at all levels. Entrants must be current graduate students at the time of the competition (i.e. enrolled in the Spring 2024 semester).

Group projects or group research are not eligible for submission and/or presentation in Grad Slam competitions. All projects and/or research must be conducted independently by the student applicant.
Fall 2023 graduates are not eligible to participate in Grad Slam 2024.

Cash Prizes!

1st place: $500
2nd place: $300
3rd place: $200

Workshops

The Grad Slam Informational Workshop was held on Friday, January 26th from 1:00 PM-2:00 PM in Siemens Hall Room 217B and over Zoom.

If you were unable to attend the Workshop stop by the Graduate Studies Office during our Grad Slam drop-in Office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 PM-2:00 PM, Sign-up here. We can give you more information about the Grad Slam Competition, answer any questions, and help you with your presentation.