Service Programs in Place at Many Schools : Education: Several church-related colleges allow students to work off tuition. These plans may serve as prototype for Clinton’s proposal for loan repayment.

A national program to allow college students to pay off tuition debts with volunteer work--the plan unveiled by President Clinton at Rutgers University on Monday--is similar to programs in place, many at church-related schools.

At Trinity College in Burlington, Vt., a Roman Catholic school, 18 students each receive $3,500 in scholarships and indirect assistance in exchange for 10 hours of work per week.

Trinity’s expertise has not been wasted. Sister Janice Ryan, president of Trinity, was among a handful of college administrators who met with the Clinton transition team in January to help shape the President’s loan repayment plan.

Ryan, a Sister of Mercy, said: “The President is underscoring community service. You can’t get much better than that.”

Clinton’s plan, which must be approved by Congress, allows students to earn tuition or repay loans through community service work, such as tutoring in literacy programs, increasing environmental awareness or volunteering in drug rehabilitation centers.

While the President’s proposal applies to a broader population, the plans in place at church-related colleges typically apply to the low-income students, those without any financial support from their families.

Unlike the President’s plan, which proposes to invest $7.5 billion over the next four years, denominations and church-related colleges are working with only a fraction of that amount.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has awarded 65 service scholarships worth $93,000 in the past three years in a denomination-wide program not tied to specific colleges.

Tim McCallister, who oversees service scholarships for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), said: “This program specifically enables access for students who might not otherwise receive a college education.”

Kristine Jensen, a third-year sociology student at UC Berkeley, paid back her $1,500 Presbyterian service loan in part by helping to link students in Guatemala with students in the United States.

A native of Sacramento, Jensen, 20, traveled to Guatemala two years ago and became interested in human rights issues within the region.

Through Unitas, a campus ministry program at Berkeley that emphasizes social justice issues, Jensen created a student center at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala that is linked to the Berkeley campus. Unitas is sponsored by Presbyterians and United Methodists.

“The main goal is to increase communication between the two campuses,” giving the Guatemalans a way to report acts of political oppression, she said. “If a student is threatened at San Carlos, there will be a direct link to report it.” Also as part of the service loan, Jensen created an educational packet on Central America for Berkeley students.

At Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., 48 students receive $3,700 a year each from the Bonner Foundation in exchange for 10 hours of volunteer service each week during the school year and 240 hours in the summer.

The Bonner Foundation, headquartered in Princeton, N.J., supports service scholarships through its Bonner Scholars Program at 22 colleges, all but one church-related.

Among beneficiaries of Trinity’s program, now 4 years old, is Elaine Viens, 31. Her transition from welfare mother to political advocate of poor women and children will happen this spring as a result of a service loan program.

A mother of two, Viens will earn a bachelor of arts degree in May from Trinity. During her four years at Trinity, Viens received $7,000 in exchange for volunteer jobs, mostly with low-income families. Her work and interest in the state’s welfare program landed her a legislative internship with the Vermont Children’s Forum, a statewide advocacy group for impoverished women and children.

When Viens graduates, she will leave welfare behind for a full-time job with the forum’s office as political lobbyist for the state’s welfare reform program.

Viens said: “The scholarship program lets me view my past in a positive way. It has helped me use my own experience to better the lives of disadvantaged women and children in Vermont.”

The Rev. Talmage Skinner, a chaplain, supervises the Bonner students at Wofford, a United Methodist college with an enrollment of 1,100. Skinner said Bonner scholars spend at least 50% of their volunteer time as tutors to fulfill a requirement placed on the grants from the Bonner Foundation.

“Some of our students run an after-school program for an elementary school,” he said. “Some teach the handicapped to swim, and one young woman works with students at a local school for the deaf and blind.”