Kearns St. Ann Catholic School's new principal has historic family ties to the institution

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Dominique Aragon

SALT LAKE CITY — Kearns St. Ann Catholic School’s new principal has a family connection to the school that goes back four generations: In 1899, Dominique Aragon’s great-great-grandparents Jennie Judge Kearns and U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns donated $55,000 to purchase the land and cover the entire cost of an orphanage on the site, which became an educational institution in 1955.

For Aragon, there’s a feeling of having come full circle. Both of Aragon’s parents and her grandmother attended Catholic schools. She herself was a student at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School and then J.E. Cosgriff Catholic School. She graduated from Judge Memorial Catholic High School in 1997.

After high school, Aragon wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, so she took a little time to figure it out. She went to work at St. Paul Episcopal Preschool. There, caring for the 2- and 3-year-olds, she fell in love with early childhood education.

“It was just such an amazing experience that when I decided to go back to school and go to Gonzaga, I knew I wanted to go into education,” she said. “I know being a teenager is very difficult and it wasn’t always easy for me, so I felt like if I could be with younger children and get them to know that they’re loved and taken care of before they become teenagers that maybe it will help them.”

After graduating from Gonzaga University with a bachelor’s degree in special education and elementary education, Aragon began her teaching career at St. Olaf Catholic School in Bountiful, where she taught second grade for three years. She then moved to J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School in Salt Lake City for six years and taught first grade, special education and was a part of the reading team. She is now in her ninth year at Kearns St. Ann. Prior to her appointment as principal, she taught second grade, fourth grade, special education and middle-school religion.

Two years ago, she received her master’s in educational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Aragon has found a real community at St. Ann’s and hopes as principal to strengthen those bonds, she said. “The children are amazing; the families are amazing. I think that a huge goal for all of us here is to really bring the parish and the school together, to really be a big family, to just help our kids to become good citizens of the world and to know that they are cared for and that they’re loved and that they  can do amazing things in this world.”

Aragon and her team hope to grow enrollment, bolster the school’s bilingual Spanish program, which the school has been building over the past two years, and continue to strengthen the school’s sports program. Along with enrolling more Spanish-speaking families, they want to ensure that “everyone is speaking English well and reading and writing and also speaking Spanish,” Aragon said.

More than anything, Aragon said she hopes to instill in St. Ann’s students that which has been most precious to her family for generations.

“I think it’s so important that it has come full circle,” she said of her family’s connection to the school. “I’m trying to make Catholic education available to everyone, no matter where you’re from. We want kids to know that this is a family and that it is important for Catholic education to continue and to grow and that everyone is welcome.”

Aragon, her husband Eric and daughter Jade live in Salt Lake City and attend St. Ambrose Catholic Church.