For the first time, the Study Abroad Office will offer students the opportunity to spend part of their winter break in a foreign country while earning class credit.

In December and January, students can spend two weeks in Paris, France, or three weeks in Isla DeOmetepe, Nicaragua. They can earn three hours of credit for these programs.

"There were many reasons for beginning to offer programs in the winter," said Jeremy Geller, the director of the Study Abroad Office. "The faculty was interested in trying it out; it has been known to succeed at other universities, and it prevents overlap of programs during the summer months so students can study abroad more than once if they wish."

Evelyne Accad, a French professor, is organizing the trip to Paris. Students who go to Paris with her this winter will receive credit for Comparative Literature 222, which will be taught in English and will include readings from various authors on topics from women's issues to religious tolerance. Speaking French is not a requirement for the trip. Accad said she thinks this trip would make a great holiday gift for students and thinks that the New Year's celebration in Paris would be especially exciting for students.

"Students will get to learn a lot from the readings they will do for class, but they will also have the chance to meet French students and see how similar and different their cultures are." Accad said. "It will be great for students to get a taste of another culture, especially at such an interesting time of year."

In Nicaragua, students will spend their break in the rainforest studying primates. Anthropology professor Paul Garber will teach Anthropology 344 and 345, which focus on the behavior, conservation and ecology of monkeys in the Western Hemisphere.

Laura Beaty, senior in LAS and the vice president of the International Illini, studied abroad in Australia in spring 2002. Beaty said the reason she decided to study abroad was to get a glimpse of the way other people in the world perceive Americans. However, she thinks more time is required to get a better idea of what a foreign country is really like.

"It is better to be exposed to another culture than just to sit around and do nothing for all of winter break," Beaty said. "But I don't think I was even able to fully grasp the experience in a semester; most students will probably wish they had stayed longer."

The deadline for application to the programs was originally Oct. 10, but it has been extended because there are still openings available in both programs. While the first year of these programs is experimental, Geller said he hopes winter study abroad can be an annual opportunity.

"Usually the first year of anything is experimental," Geller said. "But we hope to institutionalize this so that students can have another window of opportunity to study abroad while leaving the summer open for jobs and internships."

Both trips will begin on Dec. 26, with the French group returning on Jan. 11 and the Nicaraguan group returning on Jan. 18.