Live the future now!

People, including the alumni, still gaze with disbelief at the rapid expansion of De La Salle Lipa, which started in 1996. Clusters of buildings suddenly sprouted replacing the old one floor building that used to house the high school department. The old Bro. Virgil Gym, venue of many sports tournaments, gave way to a wider Sentrum, which hosted the defunct-MBA, PBL, and PBA extravaganzas, not to mention concerts by named artists like Gary Valenciano, Martin Nievera, Side A and Freestyle among others. There were around 15 clusters of buildings that rose during a two-year construction spree, and still counting at this writing. Each time a building was blessed, many prominent persons in the local and national government and in education would get invited. Thus, word passed around about De La Salle Lipa, adding one milestone after another. In fact, many thought—and still they continue to think—that De La Salle Lipa has become a university!

The architect of this rapid expansion of DLSL was the dynamic Bro. Rafael S. Do­nato, FSC. In fact, because he changed the face not only of the school but of the city as well, the ma­yor at that time, Ruben Umali, conferred on him the title “adopted son of Lipa.” And why not?  It is DLSL that had Lipa’s first elevators in both its Unified and the MTDC buildings. The learning institution has put Lipa City in the map of the country. Other establishments soon lighted up that highway, which used to be a sleeping and unproductive area. Brother Rafe coined the famous slogan, which even non-Lasallians seemed to have adopted, “Live the future now!”