Refugio “Jesse” Lomeli came to MiraCosta in 1973 as one of the founding members of the counseling department. The other counselor was Ron Baker, assigned to the Disabled Student program.

Lomeli was assigned as a counselor to the total population of MiraCosta students and to teach classes in Mexican American studies. He was soon encouraged to create and advise various student clubs and student groups – Veterans, Mecha, future educators, and athletes.

Some of the students wanted to participate in athletic activities, specifically soccer. Students asked for a soccer class, but it took time for the administration and the athletic department to respond. Lomeli offered to teach this class despite his limited background in this sport.

The soccer class started as co-ed and grew from 6 students to over 40 students. “Soon, we had a soccer club! The class and the club became an important part of my life,” Lomeli said, and Mecha students and international students created a soccer community.

Now that MiraCosta College had a soccer class, students started pushing for a varsity soccer team. Eventually, a professional goalie within San Diego was hired, but it didn't work, and Lomeli was asked to take over; he said, “Just get me a good assistant, and I will do it.” So MiraCosta had a men's soccer team in the middle 80s and, later, in the middle 90s, a woman's team.

He continued to teach the co-ed class while working with varsity programs. “Soccer gave me exercise, visibility, and credibility and opened doors,” for Lomeli to recruit high school students, both athletic and nonathletic, to MiraCosta.

In 2004 Lomeli retired after 31 years of counseling and coaching at MiraCosta College.

In 1954, the Lomeli family emigrated from Tijuana to Vista. Lomeli’s father worked for years at a nursery and tree farm owned by Wells Miller, a retired USMC Colonel. When Colonel Miller died, he left an endowment with the Rotary Club. With the guidance of his son, Read Miller, and Lomeli’s brother, also named Jesse and a teacher at Vista High School, the two families put together a unique scholarship program aimed at bilingual and first-generation students attending Vista High. Recipients would receive $1,000 a year annually. Generally, students awarded had families of six living on a budget of about $10,000 per year.

The Lomeli and Miller families plan to continue the same legacy at MiraCosta College, impacting first-generation students.

The Lomeli and Miller family transferred the scholarship program from Vista High School to MiraCosta College, creating an endowment of six figures. Education has played an essential role in the Lomeli family, R. Jesse’s wife was a counselor at Palomar College, he has a daughter who is a counselor at Palomar College, another daughter teaches physical education at Oak Crest Middle School in Encinitas, and his son runs a San Diego beach volleyball club in north county. Lomeli shares, “Community College is an ideal environment for students; the range of ages, academic ability, and long and short-term goals are unlimited. Students are not pre-screened, and working with this population of students was extremely rewarding.”