2023 Grad Slam Prelim Round 10 winner Chongzheng Wei, GGSE Dean Jeffrey Milem, and Round 10 runner up Alexandria Muller
Chongzheng Wei of the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP) won UC Santa Barbara’s 2023 Grad Slam Preliminary Round 10 with his presentation, “Stop Being WEIRD: Centering Chinese Bisexual People’s Experience of Stigma.” Wei received a $1000 prize and advancement to the Final Round of Grad Slam to be held on April 14 at 4:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. The runner-up award, and a $500 prize, went to Alexandria Muller from the Department of Education for her talk “Engineering the Education of Today for Success in the World of Tomorrow.”
Preliminary Round 10, held Thursday, March 16, featured ten students from the Gevirtz School: four from the Department of Education and six from the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology. All the participants masterfully told the campus about their research, sharing their thoughts on big ideas that matter, in just a three-minute talk.
Chongzheng Wei is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Counseling Psychology working with Dr. Tania Israel. He received an M.Ed. in Education (concentration: sexuality education and counseling) from Beijing Normal University and a B.S. in Applied Psychology from Nanchang University in China. His strong commitment to counseling psychology and social justice started by serving prisoners, underresourced migrant children, and LGBTQ individuals in China. After graduation, he was sponsored by the Chinese government to work at both UNESCO headquarters in Paris and Asia-Pacific regional office in Bangkok, promoting gender equality and LGBTI inclusion in the education sector. Chongzheng speaks Mandarin, English, and intermediate French. His research centers around addressing minority stress and mental health disparities facing the LGBTQ community.
Professor Israel assigned participation in Grad Slam to her Counselling Psychology Seminar. “The ability to communicate research in a brief period of time is such an important advocacy skill,” she says. “Many of the students were not enthusiastic about the assignment…at first. But they all did amazing jobs and ended up thanking me for pushing them beyond their comfort zone.”
The round also featured the following talks:
Maira Anaya-Lopez (CCSP)
“The Needs of Students with Dependents”
Amanda Andersen (Education)
“‘Yes, and!’ How Improvisation Supports Facilitator Confidence Engaging Diverse Communities”
Jackie Chin (CCSP)
“The Black Family Unity Project!”
Kristina Esopo (CCSP)
“In Therapy and Beyond: Getting Latinx, LGBTQ+ Youth the Care They Deserve”
Damaris Garcia (Education)
“Feelings of Closure, and Healing Returning to our Birthland: Exploring the Experience of Undocumented Immigrants”
Isaiah Jones (CCSP)
“It’s Not Just How Hard You Work, but Who You Work With: The Power of Micro- Aggressions and Affirmations”
Amaranta Ramirez (CCSP)
“The Queer Online Experience: It’s Actually Different!”
Jing Su (Education)
“Mental Health of Chinese International Students”