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 the
responsibility 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!