5/20/2018 I Am A Lasallian

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Excellence With A Soul, Competence With Compassion

By Rien Juan Diego Nillos

I am a Lasallian. I am privileged with the responsibility to drive the change I want to see. I am

honored with the task to take lead, to facilitate change, to help accomplish the aspirations of a people

and a country. Guided with Faith, Service and Community, I live my ideals as a Lasallian in the middle of

challenges and threats to peace, stability and morality. I model the way because that is what I am

expected to do and to be.

All of these I learn in school, here in the University of Saint La Salle. My teachers formed in me

the values and virtues patterned after the Founder himself: St. John Baptist de La Salle. They formed in

me the values of humility and generosity, to always see myself in the service of others. They formed in

me the desire to be excellent in all things, to never be content with mediocrity. Above all, they formed

in me the vision to be somebody who will one day take part in the formation of a country that will also

bear the marks of prosperity, excellence and morality.

My school taught me this: in the way I greet my teachers in the morning, in the way I would pay

attention to their lessons, in the way I would play and interact with my classmates, in the way I walk

down the halls, in the way I read in the library, in the way I kneel down to pray in the Chapel. My school

taught me that more important than winning is how to be fair when I play in P.E. Class. My school taught

me that more important than grammar is how to be courteous and tactful in the choice of my words in

English Class. My school taught me that more important than knowing the past is how to envision the

future from the lessons of History.

The University of Saint La Salle has taught me to be an analyst, an athlete, an artist, a scientist, a

person of faith, a leader. I am a Lasallian. And much as I am proud to be one, I am also humbled with theresponsibility of being one. I am proud and honored to be part of a Lasallian community that cherishes

the same values and aspirations. I am not alone in my role as leader, as change agent. Together, all

Lasallians, like me, can one day bring the change we want to see and when that day comes, we shall all

look back and say, Thank you, USLS, thank you our alma mater, for the lessons you have taught me. We

shall never forget your greatest lesson: Excellence with a soul, Competence with compassion!

5/20/2018 I Am A Lasallian

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