By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

Harvard College junior Lauren Kramer-Dover got two unexpected surprises last week: a trip home, and a chance to meet the president of the United States.

Kramer-Dover was one of six college students and recent graduates chosen to appear at the White House during the presentation of a report on the national student-loan default rate.

At the ceremony, held in the Oval Office on Jan. 9, Kramer-Dover got the chance to meet President Clinton and Secretary of Education Richard Riley. The moment was captured in an Associated Press wire service photograph that ran in The Boston Globe and, undoubtedly, elsewhere around the country.

"I was very excited to meet President Clinton, because I support many of his policies on higher education and higher education access," said Kramer-Dover, a psychology concentrator from Lowell House. "Like many students, I certainly appreciate the fact that the federal direct lending program makes a quality education much more accessible.

"I was also pleased that the President spoke positively about undergraduates giving back to the community," said Kramer-Dover, who directs the Mission Hill After School Program, a tutoring and mentoring program serving families in Roxbury.

The invitation to attend the ceremony began with Elizabeth Hicks, Clinton's deputy assistant secretary for student financial assistance programs and a former assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard-Radcliffe.

Hicks contacted Harvard, and Director of Financial Aid James S. Miller recommended Kramer-Dover.

On extremely short notice, and in the midst of reading period, Kramer-Dover flew to Washington on Wednesday. The next day, she met representatives from the Education Department, toured the Oval Office, chatted with both Clinton and Riley, and attended a press conference about the report, which shows that the percentage of college students who fail to repay their tuition loans has fallen to a record-low 10.7 percent.

After lunch with Hicks and Nan Nixon, Harvard's director of federal relations, Kramer-Dover spent time with her family before returning to Cambridge and her studies.