Hilary Hadley

“I love them like they’re my own.” That is a sentiment we hear often from educators, but rarely does one get the opportunity to support that claim in the ways Hilary Hadley has. Earning her undergraduate degree in 2021 and her master’s degree in 2023, she is one of the youngest featured among our Jax State Alumni. However, she reflects a standard of excellence in her profession that demands the one thing Miss Hadley dislikes—the spotlight.

Just a couple of months after beginning her fourth year of teaching, Miss Hadley’s first graders had finally settled into a routine. Normally, her classroom would file out of Coosa Valley Elementary School’s building and spill into the picnic table area to enjoy snack time. However, On this October day, they stayed in the classroom to have their snacks, giving their teacher a better vantage point from which to see and hear her students.

As is common in elementary school classes, forgotten snacks are inevitable. Miss Hadley has a snack drawer for such a time, and it’s full of a variety of delicious treats. One of those treats—a pack of Halloween cheese balls—was placed in the hands of a student in need that day. “We started snack time, and I noticed that the little boy I had given the cheese balls to was looking at me. He looked panicked, and then he began grabbing his throat,” Miss Hadley recalls. “I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I scooped him up and took him into the hallway.”

Drawing on her experience as a lifeguard in high school, Miss Hadley went to work using the Heimlich Maneuver, which worked in a matter of seconds. “We were both so relieved, and the student still has such a sweet attitude about it, even today,” Miss Hadley says with a smile. “He has asked if I will call him Cheese Ball from now on.”

Jennifer Hannah, principal at Coosa Valley Elementary School, says Miss Hadley excels at Coosa Valley Elementary School. “She is a natural-born teacher and nurturer of children. She seeks to meet all their needs when possible. We are so proud of the life-saving measures she provided. She had the presence of mind to remove the child from the classroom, perform the Heimlich Maneuver, and stay calm throughout the process.”

Although certainly the most dramatic, saving a child’s life was not the first selfless act performed by Miss Hadley in 2024.

A few months prior, in spring 2024, a coworker sent a school-wide email asking the faculty to vote for Miss Hadley in the Rack Room Shoes Teacher of the Year contest. She was anonymously nominated, and the nomination alone made her emotional. “We don’t do anything as a teacher for praise or recognition, and I was overwhelmed that someone had thought of me. I saw people sharing on Facebook, but this contest covered the entire United States, and I knew only five would be selected.”

While she may have doubted that her nomination would end in victory, the parents, faculty and staff of Coosa Valley Elementary School, as well as Miss Hadley’s friends and family, were determined to make sure the entire nation knew the treasure she is in the world of education. It was no surprise that she was at a student’s T-ball game when she received a call from her principal, Ms. Jennifer Hannah, who read her a congratulatory email from Rack Room Shoes, informing her that she had been selected as Teacher of the Year. With this award came a $10,000 technology grant for her school and a $500 gift card to Rack Room Shoes. At this point in the story, you can probably guess what Miss Hadley did with that $500 gift card. “I had all the shoes I needed and knew I could buy more if I needed them. But I remembered the students who often came to school with holes in their shoes or wearing shoes that didn’t fit at all. So, I gave the $500 gift card to the counselor to buy shoes for students in need.”

Soon after her congratulatory email arrived, Rack Room Shoes held a pep rally for Miss Hadley at Coosa Valley. “I get nervous as the center of attention. It was just my third year of teaching, but when they asked students to stand if I had ever taught them—so many were standing. It was humbling and overwhelming.”

Lessons abound in Miss Hadley’s classroom, both in word and deed. As for “loving them like her own,” if teaching them, feeding them, and providing everything within her power to help them counts, Miss Hadley is off to a good start.