Keeping It in the Family: How the Hadleys Made UIndy Home

Rob Hadley’s office is a clear reflection of who he is. Alongside plaques from his wrestling days, the walls are lined with Star Wars collectibles. “I embrace being nerdy and quirky,” said Hadley, an admissions counselor at UIndy. “People enjoy seeing who you really are.”

The office tells a larger story than his hobbies alone. Family photos share space with UIndy memorabilia, blending the two most important things in his life. 

When a prospective family sits across from Hadley, he’s never lost for words. His kids often tell him, “Dad, you don’t even have to try, just talk about your life.”

“Stories are powerful, and people connect with them,” said Hadley, whose stories could fill a book. His UIndy experiences are endless, starting with his own. 

A Legacy in Motion 

A standout wrestler at Center Grove High School, Rob Hadley ’90 didn’t initially have UIndy on his radar. He wrestled there all four years on scholarship, and his singlet photos still appear in the Oracle archives. “He had the longest gold locks I’d ever seen,” said his daughter, Annie. “My dad actually had a life before I was born.”

Rob also received an art scholarship, becoming an art teacher at Whiteland High School post-graduation, and later, principal of Rushville High School while his daughters attended school. 

His family and professional lives no longer intersected when he retired in 2023, but it lasted only 11 days. “Sticking my feet up was never an option,” he said. “I need to be doing something.”

That “something” was originally landscaping at UIndy. But an admissions role opened that better fit his background, with the added benefit of free tuition for his daughters.

Rob recruits future Greyhounds, sometimes venturing to area high schools, including Columbus North, where his son Robbie teaches English. “He’s that special teacher in their lives that I always wanted to be when I worked in public education,” he said.

A Family Tradition Continues

Robbie Hadley ‘16 never felt pressured to attend UIndy, calling it a “hilariously easy” decision. It was the only campus he visited. “If the environment feels like the one you want to be in, then it probably is,” he said.

An English major passionate about writing, he developed his media literacy skills at the Reflector and now works to instill them in his students.

“I joke with my students that I have to proselytize for UIndy,” said Hadley. “It’s only half joking because my experiences were so good that I don’t have to lie.”

Similarly to her older brother, the college search for Hannah Hadley ‘24 was simple: UChicago or UIndy. When UChicago remained a long shot, UIndy became home. “It felt natural,” she said. 

Settling on a major took trial and error. She shifted from political science to psychology before finding her passion in public relations. Influenced by her brother’s work with the Reflector, she joined as a news and opinion editor and, sharing her father’s love of art, wrote an opinion piece advocating for SPARK on the Circle to remain as a permanent downtown fixture.

The article impressed Jim Walker, executive director of Big Car Collaborative, who offered her a storytelling fellowship. She later stayed on as a grants and marketing coordinator after graduation. “It’s very interesting when your passion for writing and art history collide,” she said. “I got lucky. Luck is a little bit of UIndy.”

Different Paths, Similar Successes

Annie Hadley ’25 and Emily Hadley ’25 ’28 may be twins, but they’re very different people. “That’s why we’re so close; we always have a lot to talk about,” Emily said. Those conversations now mostly happen over FaceTime, after Annie moved to Canada for graduate school to study astrobiology.

Annie attended IU Indy for her first two years of undergrad, but the pull of the family tradition proved too strong. At UIndy, she explored her passion for space, restoring the observatory’s old telescope and leading campus efforts for the 2024 total solar eclipse, a major milestone in her life. 

She also deepened her family connections, experiencing campus life alongside her sisters, popping into the admissions office to ask her dad for $20, and continuing to attend football games, where her cousin, Clay Hadley ‘21, holds the program record for most consecutive starts. The Hadleys are loud enough to support their own student section. “We’re very enthusiastic, maybe a little overwhelming,” said Annie. “We have a lot of family pride.”

Putting those experiences on hold was difficult when Annie went north of the border. “All of our lives, we hadn’t been apart for more than two weeks,” said Emily, whose workload served as a buffer for the distance. 

Emily just completed her first year in UIndy’s nationally-recognized Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. Like many former athletes, she fell in love with the PT process after suffering an injury playing basketball while in high school.

She envisions a future in Carmel, spending her mornings walking the Monon and the afternoons working in one of the region’s innovative hospitals. But her plan hinges on one key variable: “I told Annie, wherever you end up is where I end up too.”

Forever a UIndy Family

UIndy has been a constant in Rob Hadley’s life, and it will remain that way even after his kids are through college. “I’ll probably be here until I keel over,” he joked. He takes pride in the moments when he helps someone see college as a real possibility for themselves. “If you go to college, your children go to college, then their children,” he tells them. “You change the trajectory of your entire family.” 

His family is a living example of that belief. “I don’t think we’ll ever not be a UIndy family,” said Hannah. “The Hadley family, that’s just who we are.”