It was Mrs. Henkels and her late husband, Paul, who in 2003 had the vision and determination to establish the Regina Academies.
They saw a need for a rigorous Catholic education firmly rooted in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and a curriculum designed to strengthen students in wisdom and virtue. Barbara and Paul set out to introduce students to over two-thousand years of their intellectual and spiritual heritage as Catholics.
The Henkels’ vision has flourished from the first school which was Regina Coeli Academy founded in Wyndmoor, PA in 2003, to 5 school programs, including:
The Regina Academies were founded on the classical liberal arts model of coming to know God as he is revealed in creation and in the human person. A classical education in antiquity was rooted in the seven liberal arts. Those seven were divided into the three disciplines of the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), and the Quadrivium (the “mathematical arts” of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music).
These arts were called “liberal” because it was known that coming to understand them one would understand the world about them and would develop self-discipline, or virtue. That wisdom and virtue would make them free.
The scriptures and Tradition of the Church all play a role in how students at the Regina Academies come to know themselves as God’s unique and treasured creation. That is not all. Great literature, the study of history, and other courses in the humanities help them understand who they are as human persons.
Math and science teach them the rational order of the world and point them to a better understanding of God and his creation in which they experience wonder. At the Regina Academies, children know they are loved and come to love in return. A Regina education is a Joyful Exploration of Faith and Reason.
The Regina Movement has the radical goal of changing the world, one family at a time. We entrust each academy and each student to the Blessed Virgin Mary, trusting in her maternal intercession to guide them, and to restore the world for her Son, Jesus Christ.