Many Mainers earn their livelihoods from harvesting bounty — including blueberries and lobsters — from the land and sea.

And Samuel Belknap and Kourtney Collum, the first students to enroll in the University of Maine's new anthropology and environmental policy doctoral program, want to preserve those storied traditions, as well as the state's natural resources.

Belknap and Collum say the doctorate program, which focuses on “understanding human society and culture in cross-cultural perspective and their pivotal role in implementing successful environmental policy,” is an ideal fit for their interests.

“It is so applicable and has an interdisciplinary framework,” says Collum. “I can look at issues holistically.”

Collum favors a multifaceted approach. She double-majored in anthropology and environmental studies at Western Michigan University, and earned her master's in forest resources at UMaine.