Recently, 25 German program students qualified for the Texas State German Competition in San Marcos, TX on February 28.  Twenty-eight students attended the regional competition, Houstonfest, and out of the 28, 25 qualified.

During the regional competition, the students were successful and then qualified for categories such as Vocabulary III, Listening Comprehension I, Traditional Folk Dance, Photography, Trivia Team, Extemporaneous Speaking, Advantaged Speaker Test, Polka Band, Traditional Gingerbread House Model, Non-Traditional Gingerbread House Model, and multiple individual competitions. 

Everyone who gets in the top five then goes to state. They will practice until February 27, then they will head to San Marcos, specifically Texas State’s Campus, to go against other contenders in the state. Herr Stephen Wynne, German teacher, looks forward to taking the group so the new members can see the wide variety of events there are to compete in.  

“There are categories from A-Z,” Herr Wynne says. “The motto I tell the kids is: ‘You don’t have to be good at German to go to the German contest.’”

Houstonfest itself has been around since the 80s, also being held in the Houston area. The competition includes around 40 schools nearby, and this year it was held at Kingswood High School. TWHS competes every year, and this year they flourished.This particular competition marked TWHS’ first year having a folk dance team go to state in nine years.

“Super proud of my kids, they don’t have to do this, but it makes me proud we can show off a strong German program.” Herr Wynne said.

In addition, students had two gingerbread houses, one traditional, and one untraditional, and both won second place. The polka band also took second place. And, two students qualified for extemporaneous speaking. There was one listening comprehension and one vocabulary, who qualified as well. 

 “We got trophies from Houstonfest,” Herr Wynne said, “and if we do well at State, we will get more trophies, bigger trophies.”