Following in Our Founders’ Footsteps
This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of the Dominican University Magazine.
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Dominican Graduates are Embracing Leadership in Catholic Education
When the announcement came last May that the Vatican conclave had elected a new pope, the excitement was palpable at St. Edward Catholic School on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
“We have a three-story building and I could hear the cheers coming from the classrooms,” Principal Sara Mendez Lasica ’03, MAT ’07, recalled. “We were able to take part in that event with Catholics all around the world, to pray for the new pope and to celebrate.”
It’s this open practice of faith that drew Lasica to a career in Catholic education, she says.
“In public schools and in Catholic schools, we all teach math, reading, social studies, science, etc., but the core difference is Christ is present in everything we do in a Catholic school,” she noted. “I’m able to say to my students, ‘you are so valuable, you are so uniquely made as a child of God, and Christ loves you.’”
Rooted in the values of love and truth and welcoming students of all faiths, Dominican University has always created space for diverse beliefs while preparing graduates to serve and lead in educational settings.
This mission builds on the long, influential history of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, who have established, led, and taught in Catholic schools, sharing the Dominican charism with countless students—from kindergarten to graduate school.
Today, as Dominican University’s School of Education guides and transforms students into teachers across all settings, planning is underway to prepare more students to follow in the Sinsinawa Dominican tradition and become Catholic school educators and leaders.
A new position, the director of Catholic School Initiatives, was created this year to support and develop Catholic school educators through professional development programs, mentoring, academic certificates and more. Dr. Ben Freville, assistant professor in the School of Education, assumed this role in July.
“Ultimately, we want to help our undergraduate students who are studying education see teaching in a Catholic school as a pathway for them—both from the perspective of a career, but also as a vocation,” Freville said this fall. “Catholic schools offer so much for teachers. … They can provide them with small class sizes, places where they can do some creative and innovative teaching, and where they themselves can be connected to a faith community and a community of teachers.”
Ideas may include expanding partnerships with Catholic elementary and high schools and the Archdiocese of Chicago and continuing to find ways to train Catholic school teachers in the teaching of religion.
“We really hope to expand the work we’ve been doing in the area of teaching religion and working with teachers in Catholic schools to feel more comfortable in their faith and also comfortable teaching from a faith perspective,” Freville said.
Dominican has traditionally placed students in both public and Catholic school classrooms as part of their field placements and student teaching assignments prior to receiving their degree, and many students end up beginning their careers in a Catholic school, staying there for a number of years, Freville noted.
And some even advance to leadership roles.
Several alumnae/i who are leading Catholic schools or programming shared how their Dominican education influenced them to follow in the steps of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.
A Theological Foundation
Sara Lasica joined St. Edward Catholic School as principal in 2018 after roles as an eighth-grade teacher and assistant principal at Holy Ghost School in Wood Dale.
She hadn’t considered teaching as a career, she admits, and made theology her focus during her undergraduate years at Dominican.
“I started substitute-teaching and that’s when I fell in love with teaching,” Lasica recalled. “But not just any teaching—teaching in a Catholic school. I discovered I could take my love of the faith and the knowledge I gained through my theology coursework at Dominican and combine that with being part of the Catholic school mission.”
So, Lasica returned to Dominican to study for her Master of Teaching degree. The education she received there remains a vital part of her work in education today, she said.
“That foundation in theology has allowed me to be a better Catholic school leader because I have a strong understanding of our faith and understanding scripture,” she said.
In her work, she is also able to live out Dominican’s mission in the everyday, Lasica noted.
“What we do here, what our goal is, is to create good human beings who will go out in the world, serve others and try to make the world a better place,” she said.
“We’re going to teach them all the math and reading they need to know, but we also want them to be good people who look out for the less fortunate. We want our older students to look out for our younger students and to continue on that path when they are out on their own.”
From Catholic Volunteerism to School Leadership
René Howard-Páez ’13 was a journalism major and resident assistant at Dominican University when he began considering Catholic, mission-driven volunteer opportunities after college. Thanks to resources from University Ministry, he landed a role in admissions work for Cristo Rey Boston Catholic High School, which ultimately put him on the path to a career in Catholic education leadership.
“I think the values instilled in me at Dominican—pursuing truth and giving back to others, Caritas and Veritas—just made it natural,” he said of the draw to Catholic-centered volunteerism after college. “I could go directly into my career, or I could give myself to a cause bigger than me to help discover what my passions might truly be. I could render myself to a mission that is more meaningful than any immediate salary or career.”
Howard-Páez says his work with Cristo Rey helped him discover a love for working with high school students and their families. This brought him to Wisconsin, where he served as founding director of admissions at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee and director of diversity and inclusion at Marquette University High School. In 2024, Howard-Páez was named president of St. Joan Antida High School in Milwaukee, an all-girls Catholic school serving just over 200 students, a majority of whom are students of color.
“For anyone in education, the mission of Dominican comes naturally because you want students to pursue truth,” Howard-Páez said. “That’s the whole goal of education: to provide students with the tools to ask questions, form their own opinions and leave a place better than they found it—whether it’s their community or their country.”
‘A Dependable Partner’
As a student studying psychology with an intent to teach, Danielle Coduti ’12 recalls spending many hours in Dominican’s Rebecca Crown Library, taking time to think, study and reflect.
But there was another spot that held a special place for her as well.
“Dominican had [Rosary Chapel] and Sunday night Mass, which I loved to go to,” she said.
Today, Coduti is in her first year as principal of St. Luke Catholic School in River Forest, just blocks from Dominican. It’s a school she joined in 2014 as a fifth-grade teacher before moving to middle school English/language arts and then the role of assistant principal.
Having attended Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Coduti’s educational foundation was built by Dominican Catholic values, so teaching in a Catholic school made sense, she says.
“I was really familiar with what that community looks like,” she noted. “I knew any decision I’d make would be easier because I could bring faith into it, no matter who I’m talking to. It’s always a matter of making moral choices, what’s good for the children.”
Coduti remains connected to Dominican through a partnership that allows student teachers to be placed in classrooms at St. Luke’s.
“I’m thankful to Dominican—I feel like they are always right next door,” she said. “And they are a dependable partner whenever we need them.”
Catholic Education: A Family Affair
As director of the Signum Fidei program at Montini Catholic High School in Lombard, Kent Doyle ’02, MSEd ’06, MAEd ’19 oversees efforts to help students improve their skills in reading, writing, math and other subjects if they are below grade level in these areas.
Doyle shares a love of Catholic education with his wife, Michelle Blaszak Doyle ’02, MSEd ’06, MAEd ’19.
The couple, who met in Rebecca Crown Library during first-year orientation, grew up attending Catholic schools and ultimately chose teaching in them as their career vocations, with Michelle teaching kindergarten at St. Celestine in Elmwood Park, a placement school for о student teachers. Both are also adjunct instructors in Dominican’s School of Education.
“As a teacher, I try to live out Dominican’s values both in and out of the classroom,” Michelle Doyle added. “Teaching is not my job; it is my vocation. I believe that if I teach my students to be compassionate and loving to one another, then I am called to do the same.”
Kent Doyle also credits Dominican’s professors and their authentic desire to see students succeed with helping him become the educator and leader he is today, he said.
“That support is something we saw and we experienced,” Doyle noted. “We always wanted to follow in the footsteps of those teachers who taught us at Dominican.”