News and Updates

Houstonfest Scholarships - 2026 Winners Announced!

Scholarships at State

NEW: Pass auf! Preparation

Houstonfest history

Changes and updates for 2026

Arrival at Kingwood High School

Lunch options
 

Teacher-to-teacher tips

Tips for Pair Discussion

Daily log of changes to State-qualifier list

State promo video contest

Contest promo video #1 (students from one school tell why they love contest)

Contest promo video #2 (one student tells why she loves contest)

Contest promo video #3 (hilarious 2024 State-winning submission from our own Klein Oak High School!)

Contest promo video #4 (2025 State-winning submission from Cedar Ridge High School)

Photo gallery

Important Dates

Mon., Jan. 12, 2026, 4:00 p.m.: Application for transportation grants from the Houston Saengerbund opens; link will be sent to teachers.

Fri., Jan. 16, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Application for transportation grants from the Houston Saengerbund closes.

Wed., Jan. 21, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Houstonfest registration spreadsheet due for regular price of $15/student (payment does not have to be mailed until 1/28).

Wed., Jan. 28, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Houstonfest registration spreadsheet due for late price of $20/student. Deadline to postmark Houstonfest payment.

Sat., Jan. 31, 2026, 9:00 a.m.: Submission of entries in the 7 virtual Houstonfest events due (get the link to the Google Form from your teacher - it was sent to teachers on Tue., Jan. 27).

Tue., Feb. 3, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Remote judging of the 7 virtual Houstonfest events ends.

Wed., Feb. 4, 2026, 10:00 p.m.: Houstonfest changes (adds, drops, substitutions) due. After this point, no more changes will be allowed.

Sat., Feb. 7, 2026:  Houstonfest, Kingwood High School, Houston.

Fri., Feb. 13, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: State online registration due for "early bird" price of $15/student (payment does not have to be mailed until 2/21).

Wed., Feb. 18, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: State online registration due for regular price of $20/student (payment does not have to be mailed until 2/21).

Sat., Feb. 21, 2026, 9:00 a.m.: Submission of entries in the 7 virtual State events due (get the link to a Google Form from your teacher). Also, Mary El-Beheri Memorial Scholarship and Sandra Dieckman GTHS Memorial Scholarship applications due (to submit the application, get the link to a Google Form from your teacher). Deadline to postmark your State payment.

Mon., Feb. 23, 2026, 8:00 p.m.: Entries in State promotional video contest due to State director. Link to submission form was emailed to teachers on Fri., Feb. 20.

Tue., Feb. 24, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Remote judging of the 7 virtual State events ends.

Sat., Feb. 28, 2026: Texas State German Contest, Texas State University, San Marcos.

Sat., Mar. 7, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: Houstonfest Scholarship applications due.

Sun., Mar. 15, 2026: Gail Cope State Scholarship applications due (link to application form was sent to teachers by State director on 3/2/26).

between Thu., Jan. 1 and Thu., Apr. 30, 2026: submit Gail Cope Teacher Grant applications.

Houstonfest Scholarship Winners 2026

$550*: Hannah Stokes, Tompkins High School (111 sweepstakes points)

$700: Bella Williams, Kingwood High School (David Kniess Scholarship**) (103)

$500: Kat Appling, Kingwood High School (94)

$500: Arjun Chandupatla, Tompkins High School (85)

$400: Olivia Kuba, Jordan High School (69)

$400: Kali Fuson, Kingwood High School (61)

$400: Ethan Johnson, Travis High School (61)

$400: Sierra Sumrall, Tomball Memorial High School (59)

$400: Veronika Kohut, Tomball Memorial High School (55)

$400: Adam Zhu, Jordan High School (54)

$300: Sri Prasanna, Clements High School (50)

$300: Hannah Schmieder, Heights High School (47)

$300: Bruin Hubbard, Clements High School (46)

$300: Nillie Masisak, Grand Oaks High School (36)

$300: Owen Holoubek, Heights High School (25)

$200: Ruth Mauzy, Grand Oaks High School (24)

$200: Lilah Dinardis, Clear Lake High School (18)

* This award was set to be $1000, but Hannah received a $450 scholarship in 2025, and under the principle reflected in the usual $500-lifetime-cap rule that no student should receive a disproportionate share of the scholarships over a two-year period, she receives $550 this year to bring her lifetime total to $1000.

** This one-time scholarship is given in honor of David Kniess's retirement after many successful years (and many Houstonfest and State sweepstakes wins) as the German teacher at Kingwood High School as well as his two years of service to Houstonfest as the host of the event, 2025-2026.

Rules:

• Usually, scholarships of $500, $450, $400, $350, and $300 (or some other distribution totaling at least $2000) are awarded, subject to funds availability each year. As in 2025, however, we did exceptionally well financially in 2026 due to grants, donations, and the increased registration fee, so we were able to offer up to $7100 in scholarships. The plan was to offer scholarships of $1000, $700, 2 × $500, 2 × $400, and 12 × $300 or some other distribution up to a maximum of $7100. (The actual distribution ended up being $1000->$550, $700, 2 × $500, 6 × $400, 5 × $300, 2 × $200, total $6550.) Generous grants from the Houston Saengerbund every year since 2022 have supported the scholarships, including a $5000 grant in 2026.

• For 2026, schools that registered up to 35 students for Houstonfest were allowed to nominate ONE student for a scholarship, schools that registered 36 or more students were allowed to nominate TWO students (that was Bellaire, Cinco Ranch, Clements, Grand Oaks, Heights, Jordan, Tomball Memorial, and Tompkins), and Kingwood was allowed to nominate THREE students, the third in honor of retiring German teacher David Kniess and in gratitude for his hosting Houstonfest for two years. The $1000 and the $700 scholarships had to go to different schools. If the two top-ranked applicants had ended up being from the same school, which didn't happen, the lower one would have slid down to the $500 level and the next highest-ranking applicant (from a different school) would have claimed the $700.

• The deadline for entry was 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, March 7, 2026.

• Any student currently in 11^th or 12^th grade who placed in the top five in three or more events (virtual and/or in person) at Houstonfest is eligible. Students who win a scholarship as juniors are eligible to be nominated again their senior year, but if they win their senior year, their total winnings over the two years will be capped at $500. The philosophy here is to spread the wealth around. For instance, if a student wins $350 as a junior and then qualifies for a $400 scholarship the following year, they will receive $150 the second year, for a two-year total of $500, and the remaining $250 the second year will go to create a scholarship for someone else further down in the rankings. In exceptional situations, as in 2025 and 2026 when funds were plentiful, a small number of scholarships of more than $500 may be offered; obviously, the "lifetime" cap of $500 does not apply in these cases. The question remains as to how to proceed if someone who already won a scholarship as a junior qualifies for one of the scholarships over $500 their senior year, and indeed, this situation applied to both the $1000 and $700 winners in 2026. Although all the contingencies were not spelled out prior to the 2026 contest, the spirit of the $500-lifetime-cap rule was interpreted to mean that there should still be some reasonable limit on total winnings over two years for winners of the scholarships in excess of $500; a $1000 lifetime limit was applied. Going forward, if scholarships over $500 continue to be offered, the policy will be: any junior who wins in excess of $500 is ineligible to be nominated their senior year, and any senior who wins in excess of $500 their senior year will have their senior-year award reduced by any amount that they won their junior year.

• Unless otherwise provided in a given year, each school may nominate only one student.

• The application may be submitted by the German teacher (preferable) or the student, but the student must confirm with the teacher that the teacher wants him/her to be the school's nominee before sending in the application. If more than the allowed number of applications are received from a school, we reserve the right to give NO scholarship at all to that school.

• The entry must be submitted on this downloadable form as an e-mail attachment to houstonfest@texasstategermancontest.org. Tip: click the link, then save the form to your computer before editing and e-mailing it.

• Scoring will be based solely upon how many sweepstakes points the student contributed to their school's sweepstakes total this year, with the following provisions:

  • Only points earned for 1^st through 5^th place will be considered. Points earned for 6^th through 10^th place will NOT be considered.

  • Only the original placing will be considered. If a student who placed 6^th through 10^th in a particular event later became eligible for State because someone in 1^st through 5^th place dropped out of that event, that event will not be considered.

  • Individual events and group events are treated equally, i.e., enter the full number of sweepstakes points earned for each event, regardless of whether the student worked on the event alone or in a group.

  • The accuracy of your entries will be checked against your original registration spreadsheet and the results spreadsheet. Inaccurate or dishonest entries may result in the disqualification of the application.

• Sweepstakes points can be found on the original results spreadsheet.  

• Ties will be broken by the 100 words or less written by the nominating teacher.

• Scholarship payment will be in the form of a check made out to the student and mailed to the teacher by April 15, 2026.

Past Recipients

2025

$1000: Emmery Patton, Kingwood High School

$200*: Dylan White, Tomball Memorial High School

$450: Hannah Stokes, Tompkins High School

$400: Georgy Krasovskiy, Brazoswood High School

$350: Lily Steinfurth, Jordan High School

$300: Nadiyah Russell, Heights High School

$250: Mary Katherine Schmidt, Tompkins High School

$250: Azriel Jarrett, Jordan High School

$250: Zlata Zolotarenko, Tomball Memorial High School

$250: Bella Williams, Kingwood High School

$250: Alejandra Giron, Bellaire High School

$250: Lily Cuellar, Klein Oak High School

$250: Landon Bynum, Clements High School

$250: Amy Lee, Bellaire High School

$250: Diego Diaz, Heights High School

* This award would normally have been $500, but Dylan received a $300 scholarship in 2024, and the lifetime maximum is $500.

2024

$500: Arturo Pedraza Flores, Tompkins High School

$300*: Bryce Cruise, Heights High School

$400: Ruhi Kelkar, Clements High School

$350: Veronika Reznichenko, Brazoswood High School

$300: Dylan White, Tomball Memorial High School

$300: Natalia Posadas, Heights High School (Mark Johnson Scholarship)**

$300: Camila Ramirez, Heights High School (Heights High School Scholarship)***

* This award would normally have been $450, but Bryce received a $200 scholarship in 2023, and the lifetime maximum is $500.

** This one-time scholarship was given in honor of Mark Johnson's years of service to Houstonfest as the host of the event, 2016-2024.

*** This one-time scholarship was given in gratitude to Heights High School for its years of hosting Houstonfest (2016-2024).

2023

$500: Beatriz Laepple, Jordan High School

$425: Anushka Desai, Tompkins High School

$350: Alexa Martinez, Clements High School

$250: Allen Zhu, Kingwood High School

$200: Bryce Cruise, Heights High School

$150: Nina Wallach, Bellaire High School

$125: Timothy Serres, Tomball Memorial High School

$100: Tejaswi Sriram, Travis High School

$100: John Newton, Brazoswood High School

2022

$500: Caitriona Devlin, Tompkins High School

$400: Isabel Wabnitz, Heights High School

$300: Rosa Ramirez, Travis High School

$250: Sarah Gonzales, Jordan High School

$200: Angelina Pascali, Bellaire High School

$175: Alexa Martinez, Clements High School

$100: Timothy Serres, Tomball Memorial High School

  $75: Mia Gorus, Klein Oak High School

2021

$425: Devdeep Rajpal, Clements High School

$400: Elena Carlsson, Heights High School

2020

$150: Paige Horrell, Morton Ranch High School

$125: Alexandra Gioukaris, Tompkins High School

  $75: Holly Luebsen, Tomball Memorial High School

2019

$500: Ivette Castro, Morton Ranch High School

$400: Tim Bates, Kingwood High School

$300: Jaime Hotaling, The Woodlands High School

$200: Rishi Jangale, Clements High School

$100: Jesse Ji, Bellaire High School

  $50: Emma Kinzel, Tomball High School

2018

$500: Sai Odinga, Clements High School

$450: Piper Horrell, Morton Ranch High School

$400: Karolis Vaiciulis, Cinco Ranch High School

$350: Shelby Wiecker, The Woodlands High School

$300: Dagny Carlsson, Heights High School

$100: Charlotte Rissky, Tompkins High School

  $50: Nasya Hewlett, Clear Lake High School

2017

$500:  Erik Halsband, The Woodlands High School

$450:  Adrianna Navia, Clements High School

$400:  Collin Setzer, Kingwood High School

$350:  Matthew McGrenera, College Park High School

$300:  Rachel Pham, Cinco Ranch High School

$100:  Spring Agnew, Deer Park High School

  $75:  Cole Thompson, Tompkins High School

  $50:  Alexandra Bellon, Tomball High School

2016

$500:  Lexi Kokines, The Woodlands High School

$450:  Hans Lammeman, Tompkins High School

$400:  Cindy Yongoueth, Clements High School

$350:  Anqi Lou, Kingwood High School

$100*:  Madison Ledoux, Deer Park High School

$125:  Susana Simmonds, Cinco Ranch High School

  $75:  Juan Huerta, Morton Ranch High School

* This award would normally have been $300, but Madison received a $400 scholarship in 2015, and the lifetime maximum is $500.

2015

$500: Burhanuddin Calcuttawala, Clements High School

$450: Scott Stevens, College Park High School

$400: Madison Ledoux, Deer Park High School

$350: Allison Williamson, Kingwood High School

$200: Jason Timmins, Brazoswood High School

$200: Alec Schillinger, Tompkins High School

2014

$500: Desserai Ramos, Deer Park High School

$450: Jeremy Beaty, Clements High School

$400: Robyn Morison, The Woodlands College Park High School

$350: Madeline Jasper, Brazoswood High School

2013

$500: Juli Scamardo, Clements High School

$450: Darien Higgins, Kingwood High School

$400: Jenny Baglio, Friendswood High School

$350: José Antonio Jiménez Rocha, Seven Lakes High School

$300: Zach Brown, Deer Park High School

$200: Aundrea Westfall, The Woodlands College Park High School

$150: Emily Grant, Cinco Ranch High School

$100: Madeline Jasper, Brazoswood High School

$100: Stephanie Hoffman, Clear Lake High School

2012

$500: Halla Bearden, Bellaire High School

$450: Britt Montross, Deer Park High School

$400: Ethan Mader, Clements High School

$350: Hannah Aergerter, Kingwood High School

$300: Stephen Schilter, Friendswood High School

Honorable mention, $50 each:

José Antonio Jiménez Rocha, Seven Lakes High School

Anna Clawson, The Woodlands College Park High School

Lynsie Patschke, Taylor High School

2011

$500: Callie Parrott, Deer Park High School

$450: Miranda James, Clements High School

$400: Connor Heaton, Cy-Fair High School

$350: Kaitlyn Berreth, Seven Lakes High School

$300: Nikita Viswasam, Cinco Ranch High School

2010

$500: Ana Builes, Clements High School

$100*: Luke Chen, Seven Lakes High School

$400: Jessie Jones, Deer Park High School

$350: Philip Meyer, Cinco Ranch High School

$325: Samantha Birchard, Taylor High School

$325: Tracilynn Roberts, Langham Creek High School

* This award would normally have been $450, but Luke received a $400 scholarship in 2009, and the lifetime maximum is $500.

2009

$500: Stephanie Sladek, Kingwood High School

$450: Alice Lin, Clements High School

$425: Garrett Steiger, Friendswood High School

$400: Luke Chen, Seven Lakes High School

$375: Daniel McBride, Deer Park High School

2008

$500: Brian Clark, Clements High School

$450: Amalie Barras, Cy-Fair High School

$400: Courtney Svatek, Taylor High School

$350: Abby Spitzer, Cy Woods High School

$250: Lucas Center, Westside High School