MOORPARK ADVISER PUTS CAREERS FIRST.

Byline: VICTORIA GIRAUD

Lisa Raufman, Ph.D., the counselor-coordinator of the Career Transfer Center at Moorpark College, thinks of herself as a resource person.

``A community college is a chance to change and expand your life,'' Lisa declares. ``It's designed to widen, not finish you off.''

Since Moorpark is a two-year college, Lisa helps guide a student in the right direction toward their next step. ``My emphasis is the career part of transfer, not transferring between schools. I am obligated to help a student see what education means in terms of career.'' She will ask them questions. ``Why and what are your opportunities? What are your educational goals? What major do you think will get you into something in the future?

To expand this process and find the needed resources, Lisa is searching useful Internet sites for reliable career information, as well as working on the statewide committee that will provide a one-step, electronically linked career shop.

Lisa points out that these days, a young person starting out a career will probably have from five to seven changes of occupation in their lifetime. A typical community college student like those at Moorpark, are often ``adult students, working full time and taking classes at night, who sacrifice to be a student.''

A believer in the state university system, Lisa reminds students that contrary to the University of California system, which emphasizes jobs in education or research, the ``state university is going to prepare you for jobs.''

Careers are the topic of the book ``The Career Fitness Program, Exercise Your Options,'' that Lisa co-wrote with Bill Bendat and Diane Sukiennik, other Moorpark faculty members. Originally published in 1987, it has just been brought up to date for its fifth edition, to be published this year.

Lisa counts many success stories as a result of her counseling. She remembered a young man in his 20s who was employed in high- tech work at a San Fernando Valley business. He wanted to transfer to a UC school after Moorpark graduation to pursue a master's in business. He needed at least a 3.6 grade-point average, but he was only maintaining a 2.5. Lisa told him frankly that to accomplish his goals he would have to make straight A's. He studied hard and his grades steadily went up. He was accepted at UC Berkeley, and his company was so impressed that they decided to open an office in Northern California for him to work from while he was attending the university.

Raised in the San Fernando Valley, Lisa decided on UCLA when a teacher gave her a special tour of the campus. As a sign of her future career path, one of the jobs she had while attending UCLA was keypunching jobs in the placement center. ``It shows how your past follows you,'' she laughed.

Realizing that she enjoyed and wanted to work with people, she explored various options during her college years. She was a volunteer tutor at the Dubnoff School in North Hollywood, working with emotionally disturbed and mentally ill children but decided that she preferred career counseling.

After graduation, she looked for a master's program that would suit her aspirations and found one at California State University, Los Angeles, in community college counseling that was ideal. Once again, she had a hint of the future; a summer internship in Sacramento in the personnel department of the Department of Mental Health, involved in finding jobs.

Armed with her master's, Lisa found a counseling position in 1975 and she's been there ever since. ``By this time, I had developed excellent interview skills,'' Lisa chuckled. Moorpark, she added, was known even then for its model career center and the seminars it gave throughout the state.

When she isn't busy at the Career Transfer Center, serving on various committees or being part of professional organizations, Lisa says she must ``take care of the physical, mental and the spiritual'' and that she has ``a well-rounded life that allows me to grow in whatever new direction'' she pursues. She walks, jogs or bikes at least four times a week. ``I'm constantly learning, reading and thinking how I can use what I learned to help other people.''

Lisa finds her job fulfilling and fun. She meets ``such a variety of types of people - age, occupation and life experience. Everyone there is trying to make a change in life, and I have the opportunity to give them some pointers and give them perspective.

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Photo: Counselor Lisa Raufman works with a student at Moorpark College.

Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News