Jennifer Lyders, who will graduate in June with an M.Div. Degree, works at Fourth Prebyterian Church in South Boston, where her varied ministerial responsibilities include tutoring neighborhood children and helping with homework in an after-school program.

Several times a week, Paul Jones puts aside his books at the Divinity School and makes time to work with homeless men at the Pine Street Inn in Boston.

The experience "has shown me that graduate education is not just about advanced conceptual work, but about facing very squarely some problems that society has," says Jones, a third-year student in the master of divinity (M.Div.) program.

Jones is one of 150 students at the Divinity School who periodically venture out from the classroom and the library to work throughout the Boston area as part of the School's field education program. Together these students contribute roughly 50,000 hours of service every academic year in hospitals, prisons, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and many other social service agencies. The sites range from the Boston Medical Center to Renewal House, a shelter for women in crisis, to Cambridge Cares About AIDS to Casa Nueva Vida, a homeless shelter in Jamaica Plain designed to serve the needs of Boston's Latino population.

Many students say this public service field work lies at the heart of their education. Those in the master of divinity program are required to complete 700 to 800 hours of field experience, and they receive a stipend for their efforts. But many work more than the minimum requirement, and students in the master of theological studies (M.T.S.) program, for whom field education is not a requirement, also take part in increasing numbers. The program is continually expanding. Six years ago, students could choose from approximately 130 participating sites; now they can select from nearly 200.

Kava Schafer, who will graduate in June with an M.Div. degree, has served as a hospital chaplain and hospice care provider during all of her three years at Harvard, most recently at VNA Care Choices Inc., a nonprofit agency in Cambridge that provides physical and spiritual care to terminally ill patients and their families. "It's really a way to make theology concrete," she says. "You have all this access to real-life application."

Many field education opportunities exist at local churches, places where much of the social and human service work in cities occurs. Jennifer Lyders, who will also graduate in June, works at Fourth Presbyterian Church in South Boston, where her varied ministerial responsibilities include tutoring neighborhood children and helping with homework in an after-school program. "Before I started working there, I was very uncertain about whether I wanted to become a minister," she says. But the experience "has pushed me into the direction of wanting to become one."

Dudley Rose, director of field education at the Divinity School, observes, "We are training significant leadership for these fields. We are preparing future ministers who will have a broad notion of the church's engagement in the community, and we are preparing future directors of many small nonprofit organizations."

Field education is more than volunteer work, he adds. It raises questions for students about public policy, values, and the spiritual meaning of service. "Too often, training in the social service professions leaves students bereft of any language to talk about the meaning of their work," says Rose. "This program seeks to remedy that."

Robert Beal, AB '63, MBA '65, president of Beal Companies, a real estate investment company in Boston, has recognized the value of the direct services that Divinity School students deliver in the greater Boston area. He has helped to establish the Fund for Urban Education Leadership (FUEL), a fundraising vehicle for the field education program. Among the contributors to FUEL are Bell Atlantic, the State Street Foundation, Eastern Enterprises, Konnell Limited Partnership, and the Boston Globe Foundation.

"It is my feeling that Harvard is doing a major outreach," Beal says, "and I think that is important."