Andrew Youngblood
Head of School
Andrew Youngblood has been a classical student, teacher, and administrator for over thirty years. He taught Theology at Christendom College while pursuing his doctorate in Theology at the Catholic University of America. Upon moving to the Philadelphia area in 2002, He became the second headmaster of Regina Coeli Academy. During his three years as head of RCA, enrollment tripled and the curriculum became solidified. He helped with the founding of Regina Angelorum and was head of school when the founders of Regina Luminis Academy attended RCA with the express purpose of replicating the experience of the first Regina Academy at RLA.
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After leaving RCA, Youngblood was a stay-at-home dad to his growing brood of children. Together with other families, he started a co-op which they lovingly referred to as Cor Jesu Academy with twelve students, five of them his, ranging from age 2 through grade 12.
In 2016, Youngblood took on the position of program director for the Chesterton Scholars Program at Cardinal O’Hara. Originally called the Regina Chesterton Academy, this program was open to students from Cardinal O’Hara and has run at or near capacity since its inception. This was the first school in the area to join the Chesterton Schools Network, a collection of classical Catholic schools that has experienced explosive growth over the past five years. Youngblood was there to witness this growth firsthand as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the CSN since 2016. He has helped found over fifty classical Catholic schools throughout the country and internationally. Dale Ahlquist, noted Chesterton scholar and founder of the original Chesterton Academy, states, “[Youngblood] has helped deliver a carefully crafted, integrated classical curriculum to the many Chesterton Academies, especially in their nascent stages. He has not only had a front row seat [in the resurgence of classical education]; he has had a driver’s seat”. In 2020, Youngblood helped launch the Chesterton Academy of St. Thomas at the Mar Qardakh International School in Erbil, Iraq. He has trained nearly one hundred heads of school and hundreds of faculty members in the implementation of classical pedagogy within a Catholic school environment. He provides education consulting to Catholic schools around the world.
Youngblood was born in Texas and moved around the country with his family due to his father’s work as a civil servant for the military. The family travels led him to attend middle and high school in Belgium where he learned to speak French and Dutch. Upon returning to the United States, Youngblood attended UVA and Christendom College for his undergraduate studies in History. After graduating, he returned to Europe, this time to the Netherlands, to pursue a religious vocation. His discernment process eventually led him to a contemplative Benedictine monastery where he was formed in the spiritual theology of the Church rooted in God’s intense love for each one of us.
His focus has always been to help schools create environments where students can discover this love and begin a lifelong intimate relationship with our Lord. His work has culminated in the book Know Thyself, Classical Catholic Education and the Discovery of Self published by Word on Fire and due out October of 2023. Jeremy Tate, founder of the Classical Learning Test, states, “Youngblood not only articulates a strong case for the classical renewal movement but does so in a Christ-centered manner I’ve rarely seen even in Christian discussions of education.” Youngblood resides in Malvern with a home full of teenagers and dogs.