METHUEN -- When Mabel Dominguez was a student at Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Methuen, Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Maryalyce Gilfeather told her that she would be the school's principal someday.

"She's that good," said Sister Maryalyce, now the school's president.

She was right. Dominguez is currently serving as Notre Dame Cristo Rey's interim principal and will officially become principal at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

"It's definitely a full-circle moment," said Dominguez, 34. "It's very familiar, but in a good way. I'm able to relate to the students and share my firsthand experience with them, and it's great to be a part of the community, as well."

Dominguez's life story is similar to that of the 263 ninth- to 12th-grade students who fill Notre Dame Cristo Rey's halls. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic. Dominguez estimates that about half of them were born outside the U.S. She was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the U.S. when she was two.

"My mom just wanted a better life for us," she said.

It is an experience she wants to see in the school curriculum. The shelves in her office are full of books by Black and Hispanic authors. Those are the kinds of books on the syllabus in Dominguez's Latin American literature class, which she teaches in addition to her duties as principal.

Attending Notre Dame Cristo Rey, she didn't read many diverse books. She wants to change that.

"I think it's important for the kids to see themselves reflected in the literature," she said.

She pointed to one author in particular -- Elizabeth Acevedo, whose books about young Dominican Catholic high schoolers figuring out their place in the world "literally describe our kids."

"Being able to give that to them, they've been able to engage more with the text," she said.

The books also remind her of her own life. Other such reminders abound in her office. Above the books is the graduation cap she wore when receiving her master's degree. It's decorated with a photo of her and her parents, and the words, "Por mis padres" ("For my parents"). Across from the bookshelf is an image of Our Lady of Altagracia, patroness of the Dominican Republic.

To be Dominican is to be Catholic, Dominguez said. It is the only country with a Bible on its flag. Her grandmother was her witness to the faith and her role model.

"In Catholic education, they really care about the whole person, not just so much your academics but who you are becoming," she said. "Tying our learnings to the things that make us good people."

She grew up saying and hearing "Si Dios quiere," "God willing." Before returning to Notre Dame Cristo Rey, she taught in public schools, where she wasn't able to talk openly about faith.

"When you're having tough conversations with parents about grades, about financial aid, kids really pushing themselves, I would always tie everything back to God," she said.

Her family moved to Lawrence when she was in kindergarten. When it came time for high school, she applied to Notre Dame Cristo Rey on her own.

"I basically told my mom, 'Sign here,'" she recalled. "I always really knew what I wanted for myself."

Notre Dame Cristo Rey is one of two Cristo Rey model high schools in the Archdiocese of Boston. Under the Cristo Rey model, students attend traditional classes four days a week, and spend one day working at a local business to learn workplace skills. The students' earnings from their employment go towards their tuition. The Cristo Rey model allowed Dominguez to work for her education and not burden her mother with tuition costs. She only had to pay $25 a month to send her daughter to school.

"I tie a lot of my work ethic back to the things that I learned at Notre Dame," she said.

Dominguez graduated from Notre Dame Cristo Rey in 2009 as part of the second graduating class in the school's history. The tax firm she worked at during senior year offered her a summer job that helped pay for her psychology studies at UMass Lowell. She went on to earn a master's degree in mental health counseling from Salem State University and a master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Notre Dame.

"I'll be honest, I never thought that I was going to end up back here being the principal of my school, but I always knew that I wanted to work with kids," she said.

After college, she worked as a therapeutic mentor for children in Lawrence, visiting them in their homes. If a child had anxiety, she would take them out of the house to make friends.

"It was nice to be the person pushing these kids, but also providing them a safe place to do that in," she said.

She did the same thing at Notre Dame Cristo Rey. During the pandemic, if the school didn't hear from a student during online classes, faculty members would check on them at their homes.

"It's a lot of hands-on, connecting with students," Dominguez said.

She would see girls bouncing younger siblings on their laps during Zoom classes. Notre Dame Cristo Rey students often work multiple jobs on top of their work-study requirements while also taking care of their brothers and sisters. Sometimes Dominguez will see students submitting their work at one or two in the morning.

"They're dedicated," she said. "They're very hardworking kids."

As principal, she wants to work more with families to get students motivated.

"I think ever since COVID, it has really dipped," she said. "So parents are seeking our help with that. I want to continue supporting teachers, develop leaders, get more opportunities for them on campus."

Before returning to her alma mater, Dominguez taught at public charter schools. She was teaching math and special education, struggling to get her certification and feeling defeated.

"I'm not a good test taker, right?" she said. "I could tell you what I'm doing. Any time it came to the test, I just struggled."

She was scrolling through job listings when she saw that Notre Dame Cristo Rey was hiring a dean of students.

"You know what?" she thought to herself. "Let me try. I know Notre Dame. Let me shoot my shot."

It worked. Now she wants students to know about her own challenges with tests, so they can relate to her story and her strategies for working through them.

"A test doesn't define their intelligence, it's just a snapshot in time," she said.

To her, learning at Notre Dame Cristo Rey is far more than test results.