UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Members of the Penn State and local communities are invited to serve as judges at the 2024 Graduate Exhibition, to be held March 18-22 on the University Park campus and online. The annual event is designed to be a showcase of research and creative scholarship across the University and features graduate students from dozens of degree programs exhibiting research posters, visual arts, musical performances, design projects and videos. No special expertise is needed to serve as a judge, as students have been directed to develop their work to be understood by audience members without content-related expertise.
The goal of the Graduate Exhibition is to provide graduate students with an opportunity to present their work to a broad audience, which includes Penn State faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of the local community. This can help students improve their communication skills as they discuss the importance and impact of their work.
Judges will learn about exciting research and creative scholarship across the University, while also sharing their perspectives to help students improve upon their work. Students receiving the highest evaluations will receive cash prizes in recognition of their work.
Judges can choose to evaluate one or more of the five Graduate Exhibition categories: design, performance, research poster presentation, video and visual arts.
“The Graduate Exhibition is a fantastic opportunity to engage with our graduate community,” said Susan J. Loeb, chair of this year’s Graduate Exhibition. “While serving as a judge, you will interact face-to-face with many of the students and learn about their innovative academic research and design, professional scholarship, visual arts creations and performing arts delivery, as well as interact remotely with students from distant locations.”
Video judging can be completed online and can be done remotely. Judges will have from Monday, March 18 to Friday, March 22, at 6 p.m. to complete their evaluations.
For the design, performance, research poster, and visual arts categories, judges must be present in person to complete their evaluations on Friday, March 22. The design, research poster and visual arts judging will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the HUB-Robeson Center that day, and the musical performances will be from 7 to 9 p.m. that night in the Music Building’s Recital Hall on the University Park campus.
Interested community members can register as a judge on the Graduate Exhibition website. The judge registration deadline for the video category is March 10. The deadline for the design, performance, research poster and visual arts categories is March 17.