STEPHANOPOULOS DISCUSSES ADMINISTRATION'S CHANGES

FYI

Did you know that, until 1975, Rhodes Scholarships were limited to men?

Did you know that a student who wins a Rhodes Scholarship can only attend Oxford?

Did you know that the scholarships are named for Cecil John Rhodes, British statesman and financier?

White House spokesman says domestic and economic policies will shift with the new president.

Adults can be called many things, but "kid" is usually not one of them. Yet, White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos, who's been called that by at least one reporter, says he feels like a kid once in a while.

"Even though I have to be in front of the cameras a lot, there's a part of me that's still kind of embarrassed by it and embarrassed by the newness of all of it," the 31-year-old Stephanopoulos said in a telephone interview with Children's Express before President Clinton's inauguration. "So it takes some getting used to."

Stephanopoulos said he had no idea when he was young that he would be in his present position.

"When I was young, I thought I was going to be a priest. Later on, I looked at a lot of different things _ law school, international affairs _ but I had never had a set idea in my head of what I would do."

The son and grandson of Greek Orthodox priests, Stephanopoulos went to Columbia University and then received a master's in theology from Oxford University in Cambridge, England, where he studied for two years as a Rhodes scholar.

Stephanopoulos later served as an aide to House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and in Michael Dukakis' 1988 Presidential campaign on the rapid-response team. He also was communications director for the Clinton campaign.

Did he make the transition?

Now that the campaign is over and Clinton's presidency has begun, we wondered what the transition from the campaign trail to the White House was like.

"This is a very different period, and it's quite different from the campaign," he said. "One of the ways I saw the difference (is that) I do these press briefings just about every day.

"I (used to) get up and answer the questions for the governor. And the day after the election, I get up to do the press briefing, and the first question is, `How long did the governor sleep last night and what did he have for breakfast?'

"It just showed all of a sudden the big difference after you win, that people care a lot more about issues big and small."

At these press briefings, Stephanopoulos speaks for Clinton and gives information about Clinton. He has to be careful about what he says.

"Anything you say could reverberate around the world," he explained. "So you have to be much more careful about how you talk about things."

As the Clinton presidency unfolds, we asked Stephanopoulos what kind of changes we should look forward to.

"I think you're going to see a complete change in our economic policy, focusing more in investing in people, health care and education," he said.

Diverse changes

"I think you'll see more diversity in government, more African-Americans, women, Hispanics and other minorities coming into their own positions of responsibility. I think you'll see new attention paid to the problems we have here at home and a real activist president who wants to get things done."

After Clinton leaves office, Stephanopoulos doesn't have a clear view of where his future might lead.

Many children and adults might envy all he has accomplished in life, but they don't realize how much hard work it takes to achieve as much as he has. When asked what advice he would give kids about how they could work up to a position such as his, he said:

"Study hard, try and develop a broad range of interests, try and take interest in a lot of different people and learn from your friends and their friends.

"Pick some kind of service activity that interests you and (one in which) you think you can make a difference," he continued. Get an understanding of people's lives beyond your own."