To educate children and young people toward human perfection as global, upright citizens who inquire and take initiative to consolidate their life project, respectful of individual differences, in order to collectively build a better society and contribute to sustainable development.
Gimnasio José Joaquín Casas projects itself toward 2027 as a national benchmark for quality education: inclusive, sustainable, intercultural, and with an international perspective.
In 1959, GIMNASIO JOSÉ JOAQUÍN CASAS was founded — an Educational Project that began with forty children, serving as a seedbed of outstanding quality. Its founder, Jaime Leal González, stamped it with a mark of intellectuality and quality rooted in the Salesian principles of accompaniment, respect, kind treatment, and healthy living as fundamental pillars of human dignity.
Moving forward with steady determination and the conviction that every reality must be changed for the better in pursuit of the finest path toward HUMAN PERFECTION, Dr. Leal succeeded in building a spacious yet modest campus — constructed with the institution's own resources. Three generations of dignified, respectful, entrepreneurial Colombians have passed through these halls, and today they lead with courage in defense of the public interest across institutions and companies.
A 66-year history and 58 graduating classes that have lived through the country's story, working together from the classroom to keep transforming Colombian society — always with Head Held High to the Sky, Never a Step Back!
The school's communications department preserves a photographic archive of the Gimnasio's history.