Innovation That Makes Room for Family, Faith, and Formation
Updated: Sep 16
What does innovation in education look like when it is designed around the life of a family?
For Regina Caeli Academy, innovation is not simply about changing where learning takes place. It is about creating an educational model that incorporates family life, the Catholic faith and its formation while maintaining a rigorous classical curriculum.
This distinctive approach earned Regina Caeli Academy national recognition as a 2026 Yass Prize contender.
More Than a Different Schedule
Craig Cowley, whose family became part of the Regina Caeli Academy community in 2021, has had a profound RCA experience. In a testimonial recorded earlier this year, Craig reflected on what our hybrid model made possible for his daughter.
“The hybrid model is a 2 day a week model that we use at RCA that offers ample family time.”
For Craig's family, that additional time had a purpose. He shared that his daughter was able to attend Mass and adoration frequently, spend time with the Lord, and have opportunities for discernment.
The value of the Regina Caeli model, in his experience, was not simply that students spent fewer days at a center. It was that the structure created space for other important parts of life.
Family. Faith. Prayer. Discernment. Formation.
Rethinking What Education Can Make Possible
The Yass Prize recognizes education providers that demonstrate the STOP principles: Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless.
The 2026 contender cohort includes organizations developing different approaches to education and expanding possibilities for students and families. The Yass Prize describes the cohort as education innovators working to transform how learning can serve students. Read the announcement of the 2026 contenders.
For RCA, that innovation is expressed through a model that brings together center-based instruction and structured home learning while parents remain the primary educators of their children.
The Yass Prize's profile of Regina Caeli Academy highlights our classical homeschool hybrid model and its two-day of teaching at a local center along with three days of homeschooling. Explore RCA's Yass Prize profile.
Any educational model may be summarized and explained on paper – but be experienced in different ways by the families who live it. In the case of Craig’s family, their RCA experience went well beyond the classroom.
Making Room for Formation
Craig also spoke about the education his daughter received through RCA. He described an environment that combined rigorous learning with opportunities to grow in her relationship with the Lord.
For RCA, formation is an essential part of the educational experience. The goal is not only to develop students academically, but to help them grow in virtue, deepen their faith, and prepare to live their vocations with purpose.
Craig described RCA as a place that helped form young men and women who could go on to make a positive impact in their communities and raise families rooted in faith.
His testimony offers one perspective on what innovation can look like when education is structured around the whole life of a family.
Innovation With a Purpose
Innovation is meaningful when it serves a purpose.
Regina Caeli’s model provides a framework in which rigorous classical learning, parent involvement, community, family life, and Catholic formation can exist together.
That is part of what RCA brings to the conversation about educational innovation.
The 2026 Yass Prize contenders represent a range of organizations exploring new possibilities in education. Explore the full 2026 contender cohort.
For Regina Caeli Academy, being part of that cohort is an opportunity to share not only what the RCA model looks like, but what it can make possible for families.
Craig's experience offers one example: more room for family, more room for faith, and more room for formation.
Training Minds. Forming Souls. Supporting Families.
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