The Four C’s That Shape the RCA Experience
Updated: Sep 23
What makes an educational experience truly formative?
At Regina Caeli Academy, we believe education is about more than academic achievement. It is about forming the whole person through Catholic Identity, Catholic Culture, Community of Faith, and Classical Education.
These Four C’s are woven into the experience of RCA families and help shape an educational model that is centered on faith, knowledge, relationships, and formation.
As a 2026 Yass Prize contender, RCA is honored to share the story behind this approach and the families who experience it firsthand. The Yass Prize recognizes education providers that demonstrate Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless approaches to education. RCA is among the 26 contenders selected for the 2026 cohort.
Catholic Identity
For many RCA families, the journey begins with a desire to place the Catholic faith at the heart of their children's education.
Ashley Trahan, a mother from RCA Baton Rouge, shares how her own journey in the faith shaped her family's search for an educational experience.
“As I learned more and more about our beautiful Catholic faith, I started to understand the importance of raising our child with an education centered around that faith.”
For Ashley, finding an educational model rooted in the Catholic tradition was an important part of choosing how her children would learn and grow.
Catholic Culture
Catholic culture is not limited to what happens during a particular lesson. It is reflected in the way families, students, and staff live their faith together.
At RCA, faith is part of the environment in which students learn, relationships are formed, and families pursue their vocation as educators of their children.
This creates opportunities for students to see that faith and learning are not separate parts of life, but can work together in the pursuit of what is good, true, and beautiful.
Community of Faith
One of the greatest gifts Ashley identifies from her family's years at RCA is community.
“Over the past 8 years, a huge gift we've received from Regina Caeli is the gift of friendship and a strong community.”
She also reflects on the importance of relationships and the role that other families, parents, and staff members have played in her children's formation.
“God has called me to be their primary educator, but he has not called me to be their only educator.”
That perspective captures an important part of the RCA experience. Parents remain their children's primary educators while being supported by a community of faith-filled families and tutors who contribute their own gifts and talents.
Classical Curriculum
Ashley discovered classical education while researching different approaches to homeschooling.
“I fell in love with classical education. It just made sense and I truly believed that's how a child should learn.”
Years later, she says she can see the fruits of a classical education in her oldest child.
RCA's classical curriculum is designed to cultivate knowledge, reason, virtue, and a love of learning while remaining rooted in the Catholic tradition. The Yass Prize profile highlights RCA's rigorous classical curriculum as part of its nationally accredited homeschool hybrid model.
The Four C’s Together
The Four C’s are not four separate pieces of the RCA experience. They work together.
Catholic Identity gives education its foundation.
Catholic Culture shapes the environment in which students grow.
Community of Faith surrounds families with relationships and support.
Classical Education forms students through a rigorous pursuit of knowledge, reason, and truth.
Together, they help create an educational experience that seeks to form not only capable students, but young people prepared to live their faith and pursue what is good, true, and beautiful.
Continuing the Yass Prize Story
Last week, we explored another part of the RCA story in “Innovation That Makes Room for Family, Faith, and Formation.” That story looked at how RCA's hybrid model creates room for family life, faith, prayer, and formation.
This week, we are looking more closely at what fills that model with purpose: the Four C’s that shape the experience of RCA families.
RCA is honored to be part of the 2026 Yass Prize contender cohort, joining 25 other education innovators from across the country. The Yass Prize describes this year's cohort as organizations demonstrating diverse approaches to transformational innovation and creating new opportunities for students and families.
Watch Ashley Trahan's testimonial above to hear how these principles have shaped her family's experience at RCA Baton Rouge.
To learn more about Regina Caeli Academy's selection as a 2026 Yass Prize contender, visit the RCA Yass Prize profile and explore the full 2026 contender cohort.
Regina Caeli, ora pro nobis.
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