$3,000 Opportunity: UCO Launches Scholarship to Send Students to Germany

The University of Central Oklahoma is offering its students the chance to win a $3,000 scholarship to study abroad through their annual 2025-2026 Global Competency Initiative. 

This year’s program, Passport to Germany, is run by the College of Liberal Arts and the Max Chambers Library.

The UCO Passport Program is a university-wide initiative that runs throughout the year, offering students experiences that promote an understanding and appreciation of global and cultural diversity. It also provides educational and entertaining cultural events for UCO students and the surrounding community.

Every fall, the Passport program features a country or a region to investigate. 

Associate Professor of German in the Modern Languages Department at UCO, advisor of the UCO German Club, and member of the PPTG scholarship committee, Sophia Clark, is highly involved in everything to do with the program.

Clark says that through campus events, they are looking to get as many clubs and organizations involved as they can in the PPTG program, including the Christmas Market on Nov.18 from 9:00-2:00 P.M, in which they are recruiting clubs from all over campus to host tables to sell various gifts like cookies, ornaments and whatever may be unique to each club for the holiday season. 

As a part of the Passport program, Clark mentions that one of the biggest things to know about this program is the scholarship challenge for students who attend. By going to the PPTG events, collecting stamps on “passports” and concluding by writing a 600-700 word reflective paper about the experience by the first deadline of Feb 28., 2026 and the second deadline of April 17, 2026, students can get up to a $3000 scholarship that can go towards paying for a study tour to Germany that will take place in May of 2026.

The reflection papers will be reviewed by a committee of UCO faculty and staff. The first and second prizes will be announced on March 11, 2026, and the third prize will be announced on May 1, 2026.

The study abroad tour is a part of a three-credit summer class offered by UCO, which is directly affiliated with the passport program. Students who are enrolled in this class and a few selected professors in the course will travel to Germany together for 10-14 days, while still participating in the class with educational goals set for the trip. This can look like writing journals about their experience, doing assignments, or writing papers, a few examples named by Clark. 

“Money is often a limiting factor in study tours, so students who want to travel but maybe can’t…don’t have the extra finances to do so…a scholarship like that that we’re offering could really…allow them to do something that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do…that’s why this scholarship is such a great opportunity.” Said Clark. 

Clark says that by attending the PPTG events, students will learn and get exposure to different aspects of German culture before they actually get the chance to travel. By better equipping their understanding and then being able to go to the country itself, Clark says that it is hugely rewarding for students.

To add on to the experience of travel, Clark says that there have been students who had never flown in a plane before and who had never been out of the country before. 

“Students who were nervous to travel, who didn’t know… if travel was for them…loved it, and they realized that they could travel.”

She continues to say, “You can learn about a thing or a place in a classroom, but actually experiencing it and going there and seeing for yourself and doing for yourself that makes all the difference…So it is only a positive thing.” 

In the past, the GCI has been able to take UCO students to countries such as India in 2020, Japan in 2022, Peru in 2023, and Nepal in 2024.

The website will be updated throughout the year to include more events going into the spring semester. Stay caught up by visiting here.