Volunteer Judges for Student Presentations

As a Conference attendee you have the option to serve as a Volunteer Judge to score HCC presentations (oral, speed talk, and posters) given by students. Volunteer Judges are typically conservation professionals who are midway through or long into their career and are familiar with critically reviewing scientific presentations. The scoring provided by the Volunteer Judges will determine the winners of the Student Awards identified below. We would very much appreciate your willingness to volunteer as a judge to encourage and recognize our young emerging leaders and thank you ahead of time for making the 2025 Student Awards a success!

Student presentations are scored according to creative ability, scientific procedures, thoroughness, competence, and communication. Prizes are awarded to the top student presentations in the categories listed below.

HCC 2025 Volunteer Judge Sign Up Form

Deadline Monday July 14th, 2025 by 12pm

Judges will be responsible for signing up for and judging student presentations within the presentation categories of Poster Presentation, Speed Talk, and Oral Presentation. Judges will be expected to attend the students’ presentation time slot and submit a digital scoresheet after the presentation. All scoresheets will need to be submitted by 10pm Wednesday July 23rd to ensure there is enough time to calculate scores and reach out to the winners to make sure they can attend the Student Award Ceremony on Thursday July 24th in room 316 BC starting 3:30pm. Judges will be asked to judge up to 8 presentations to ensure that each student presenter receives at least 3 scores. Once you sign up to be a judge you will receive an email to begin signing up for presentations that you can judge. Please be aware that email updates will be sent calling out presentations that do not have enough judges and for folks to sign up for those presentations.

*Only those who indicate on their abstract submission form that they would like to participate in the Student Award Program will be considered.*

Graduate Student Award Categories

• Outstanding Oral Presentation
• Honorable Mention Oral Presentation
• Outstanding Speed Talk Presentation
• Honorable Mention Speed Talk Presentation
• Outstanding Poster Presentation
• Honorable Mention Poster Presentation

Undergraduate Student Award Categories

• Outstanding Oral Presentation
• Honorable Mention Oral Presentation
• Outstanding Speed Talk Presentation
• Honorable Mention Speed Talk Presentation
• Outstanding Poster Presentation
• Honorable Mention Poster Presentation