Art Professor Receives International Excellence Award from OEA

Aspen Hochhalter, associate professor of photography in the Department of Art & Art History, has received the 2025 International Excellence Award from the UNC Charlotte Office of Education Abroad (OEA). The award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to promoting global engagement and enriching education abroad experiences for Niner Nation. 

Hochhalter has been organizing and leading study abroad programs for the department for 15 years, with long-running biennial summer programs in Italy and Ireland and an annual spring break trip to Italy. “Under her guidance, students are not only immersed in rich cultural and artistic environments, but they return more confident, self-aware, and grounded in their place within a global world,” the OEA noted.

Hochhalter will be celebrated at the Office of International Programs award ceremony that takes place during International Education Week in November. Read more about why she was honored in this article from the Office of Education Abroad.

Above, left to right, Aspen Hochhalter on study abroad tours in Ireland and Italy.

The College of Arts + Architecture has the highest rate of student study abroad participation at the university. Last year, Associate Professor of Architecture Jeffrey Balmer received the OEA’s inaugural Curriculum Design Award for his development of the School of Architecture’s Rome/Istanbul semester-long study abroad program.