When Amanda Krueger wanted to immerse herself in French language and culture, she only had to travel a few hours north.

The interdisciplinary humanities senior spent the fall semester studying abroad in Quebec, Canada, learning to fluently speak French in predominately French surroundings.

"So many people don't think of Quebec as anything different," Krueger said. "It's like you're in Europe."

Krueger was the second student to go on the study abroad program for the French language in Quebec.

The program is virtually unknown, Krueger said, but she's astonished more people don't partake in it.

"I actually saved $2,500," she said. "We calculated it. And the things I got to do I couldn't have done here."

Krueger said she went on another study abroad trip a few years ago, and spent a considerably smaller amount of money on a semester in Quebec than she did on six weeks in Europe.

The semesterlong trip is an MSU program, but isn't as well-known as other study abroad programs because it was done through a collaborative program with Big Ten universities and The University of Chicago.

Inge Steglitz, assistant director of the Office of Study Abroad, said the program fell under the auspices of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which allows colleges and universities to pool their resources.

"These are options that we have listed in our catalog, even though they are not technically MSU programs," she said.

MSU has five different study abroad trips through the collaborative program, and Steglitz said Quebec received the lowest interest.

She said she's unsure why.

"My sense is that most of our French students who want a French experience don't think of Quebec," she said.

The Quebec program, as well as the other four programs under the committee, are not advertised like the other MSU study abroad programs, Steglitz said, but the material is available in the Office of Study Abroad.

"It's certainly not something that MSU is in any way trying to discouraging students from participating," she said.

Retired Professor Joseph Donohoe is the faculty member who helped design the trip to Quebec, and said since the students' tuition goes straight to the university he or she attends in Canada, MSU isn't receiving money for the trip.

"Students are not required to pay tuition at Michigan State," he said. "Quebec is really an easy thing to sell. If people only knew what was going on, you wouldn't have to sell it."

Donohoe said he would like to see the university work harder to promote the program.

Krueger said the trip was well worth her time.

"I saved all this money and I got to do so many things," she said. "And I have some amazing friends. I have links all over the world where these people will emphatically say, 'Come visit me.'"

And Quebec shouldn't be dismissed as "just Canada," Krueger said.

"They don't want to be glazed over as Canada," she said. "They're not Canada.

"They're Quebec."