ORONO – Students in Susan Pinette’s “Introduction to Franco American Studies” class have devoted a semester to discovering the Franco-American community in Maine and on the University of Maine campus.

Now, those students are giving others the chance to see, hear and taste what that community has to offer.

The class will hold an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, in the Soderberg Center, Jenness Hall. The open house will showcase the students’ research projects, including photographs, demonstrations and students playing folk music and cooking Franco-American foods.

Pinette, the director of Franco-American studies and an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at UMaine, said she hopes the open house would serve as an opportunity to celebrate the vitality of the Franco-American community and culture.

“I want students to be engaged with the Franco-American community that exists on and off campus,” she said. “We are studying a living community; I don’t want students to lose sight of that. I want them to see that they are in dialogue with members of the community.”

To that end, students have been preparing their exhibitions, as well as writing papers detailing their research. Earlier in the semester, they completed an oral history project interviewing a Franco-American.

The interviews were designed to help students understand how Franco-Americans interpret and live their ethnic identity, and to draw out significant themes and touchstones of Franco-American culture.

Pinette said her students, not all of whom are of French descent, have been enthusiastic about their research.

“Most of the students are surprised there is so much to learn in Franco-American studies. Those from Franco-American families are shocked at how much history there is in their own families; those who are not Franco are intrigued by the Franco community surrounding them,” she said.

Students’ research topics include the Catholic church in Old Town, the mill in Millinocket, the mill in Jay, Franco-American foods and folk traditions, Acadian foods, the assimilation of immigrants, the mills in Biddeford, the Franco-American presence in the Civil War, Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Lewiston, the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City, La., and Cajun foods.

Courtnee Crystal, a first-year international affairs and French major from Sanford, said her research on the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival and her oral history project have helped her to appreciate her Franco-American roots.

Some members of her family live in Morgan City, La., and for her oral history project, she interviewed her grandmother and great-grandmother, both of whom live in Maine.

“My grandmother and great-grandmother are French-Canadian, and some members of my family are Acadian from Louisiana. It was neat to work with them,” Crystal said. “For me this class has helped me to figure out who I am as a Franco- American.”

Crystal researched the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival by contacting Morgan City, La., officials and by e-mailing and interviewing her family members on the telephone.

She said she was surprised by how much she has learned, especially through the oral history project.

“When I started doing the interviews, I really didn’t think I would learn all that much, but I learned a lot. I never would have done the interviews if not for this class. And my mother pointed out that my great-grandmother is 86, and she won’t be around forever. So her stories wouldn’t have been recorded otherwise,” Crystal said.

Rachel Gulezian, a first-year student from Cumberland, researched the Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Lewiston. Gulezian is of Armenian and Dutch descent, but she said she decided to take a Franco-American studies class after studying French in Belgium for six months last year.

Gulezian toured the church and Lewiston’s French Quarter. She also gathered information in the Lewiston Public Library.

She said she was impressed by the resilience of Lewiston’s Franco-American community.

The church was like cathedrals one would see in Europe, “but it was built during the Depression, and they raised money with bake sales and baseball games,” she said. “These people built it to guard their culture and their religion,” she says.

For her oral history project, Gulezian interviewed Tracy Guerrette of St. Agatha, who also is taking the class.

Gulezian said she was excited to learn about people from a part of the state she has never visited.

“Tracy talked very enthusiastically about her relatives from the valley,” Gulezian said. “That was interesting because I’ve never been farther north than Orono.”

Kerri Wyman, a junior biology major from Old Town, researched the history of the Catholic church in Old Town. Although she does not consider herself a Franco-American, she is distantly related to some members of Old Town’s Franco-American community. She also attends Holy Family Church there.

She said she was amazed to learn that in the early days of the church, activities were conducted in French and the priests often would fill out birth certificates in French.

Wyman said the class has made her appreciate the presence of the Franco-American community around her.

“A lot of people in the younger generation don’t realize how much Franco culture is around them, especially young people in Maine. I’ve learned how pervasive that culture is, and how interesting it is to learn about the people around me,” she said.

Lindsay Fields, a senior majoring in communication sciences and disorders, researched the mills in Jay and the efforts of Franco-Americans in Jay to preserve their culture. In her oral history project, Fields interviewed three women who worked at the mill.

She discovered that although all three worked to maintain their heritage, they were forced to at least partially assimilate to the culture around them.

Even so, Fields said, she was impressed by the support within Jay’s Franco-American community.

“The bond that Francos have with one another, and their strong ties to the Catholic religion, really surprised me,” she said. “The project was really fun because I got to learn about different people and cultures and what’s important to them,” she said.

Nathan Cota, a junior electrical engineering major from Burnham, said that he also has welcomed the chance to learn about Franco-American culture.

“I realized that I’ve lived in the state of Maine my whole life, and I had no idea that so many Franco-Americans lived in Maine. This class has opened my eyes,” he said.

Cota’s research focused on the Franco presence in the Civil War. He said it was intriguing to discover the reasons why Franco men – including French Canadians – fought in the war.

His demonstration at the open house will highlight the wartime achievements of Remi Tremblay, who fought for the Union Army.

There are 16 students enrolled in the course, which is part of the Franco-American studies’ core curriculum. Franco-American studies is an interdisciplinary program that explores the French cultures of the United States and Canada, focusing on the people of Franco-American heritage in Maine and the Northeast.

Its curriculum is designed to teach the Franco-American past and present, including topics such as problems of identity, the politics of language, literature, historical struggles, women’s issues and experiences, economic structures and the role of family.

Students at UMaine may earn a minor in Franco-American studies by completing 18 credit hours in courses ranging from the four Franco-American core courses to courses in anthropology, French and history.

The Franco-American studies program is affiliated with UMaine’s Franco American Center.

Pinette said Franco-American studies are an important part of the curriculum at UMaine.

“Francos make up approximately 30 percent of the population of Maine,” she said. “As a land grant institution, UMaine should be responsible to this population. Given its location so close to Canada, UMaine is also uniquely situated to study this population. Franco-American studies is an emerging field and UMaine has a chance to be a leader in it,” she said.

Pinette, who was born in Presque Isle, is of Franco-American descent. Her father was from Fort Kent and her mother was from Winterville, but she was raised in southern Maine.

She attended UMaine as an undergraduate and completed her graduate studies in French at the University of California at Irvine.

Pinette has held her position at UMaine since 1999, teaching “Introduction to Franco American Studies” every fall.

For information about the open house or Franco-American studies, contact Susan Pinette at 581-4450.