LEWISTON – A tourism major from Merici College in Quebec recently served as an intern at the Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

Marie-Pierre Pross-Rancourt, 23, spent much of her time conducting research for an educational brochure about Franco-American culture in North America. Working with Collection Coordinator Donat Boisvert and scholar Barry Rodrigue, PhD, her aim was to contribute “another French Perspective – one from Quebec.”

Her work also included French translation, collecting images from the archives and formatting the brochure layout. The document, which Pross-Rancourt said will provide greater insight into the Franco-American presence here, will also serve as a supplement to a “Franco-American Performing Road Show” that is in the planning stage.

While in Lewiston, Pross-Rancourt visited an advanced French class at Edward Little High School, interviewed several local French-speaking residents and collected information from the Franco-American Genealogical Society in Auburn. While there, she traced her own family back six generations in Quebec.

“There are many more French people here than I thought,” Pross-Rancourt observed. “I discovered a different French culture that I didn’t know about before.”

The Franco-American Heritage Collection, formerly known as the Centre d’Heritage Franco-Americain, is the largest repository of Franco-American archival material in the state, with material on local history, government, religion, language, education, industry, sports and the arts.

Visitors are welcome from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Wednesdays and 8 a.m. to noon Thursdays. For more information, call 753-6545 or visit the Web site at www.usm.maine.edu/lac/franco.