International award recognizes teaching excellence, student success and innovative approaches to preparing future business leaders for a global workforce.
When more than 6,100 students from 53 countries collaborated on international business projects this spring, University of the District of Columbia students stood out among their peers. Their performance helped earn Professor Anshu Arora the 2026 X-Culture Best Professor Award, an international honor celebrating excellence in teaching and global experiential learning.
Presented by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), the award recognizes top-performing educators participating in X-Culture, a large-scale experiential learning initiative that gives students firsthand experience working in global virtual teams.
During the Spring 2026 semester, 6,165 students from 162 universities in 53 countries across six continents participated in the program. Organized into 1,279 teams, participants developed business proposals and implementation plans for corporate partners while working across cultures, languages and time zones.
Based on evaluations across more than 100 performance indicators, Arora was selected as one of approximately 50 professors recognized among nearly 200 participating educators worldwide.
"Professor Arora consistently demonstrated excellence as an educator and collaborator," wrote X-Culture Founder and Coordinator Vasyl Taras, Joseph M. Bryan Distinguished Professor of International Business and Department Head at UNCG. "She completed all responsibilities on time, supported her students diligently and promptly addressed student questions and concerns."
Taras noted that X-Culture requires a significant commitment from both students and instructors, as teams navigate cultural differences, communication challenges and demanding project deadlines. In his recommendation letter, he wrote that Arora "went above and beyond" to support student success and ensure a meaningful learning experience.
For Arora, the recognition reflects the accomplishments of UDC students as much as her own.
"Our students continue to demonstrate that they can compete and succeed alongside peers from leading universities around the world," said Arora. "The ability to collaborate across cultures, contribute to international teams and solve real-world business challenges is increasingly important in today's workforce. I am incredibly proud of what our students accomplish through this program."
At UDC, Arora teaches marketing, artificial intelligence and robotics in the School of Business and Public Administration. She serves as director of the AI, Social Robotics and Behavioral Research Lab and the Logistics and International Trade Analytics Center, where she leads research and student engagement initiatives focused on emerging technologies and global business practices. Her research explores social robotics, artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction, with a focus on how people engage with intelligent technologies and how organizations can effectively integrate them into business and customer experiences. She also serves as editor of a special research collection for Frontiers in Robotics and AI, is a research fellow with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for International Business Education and Research and participates in multiple National Science Foundation-funded projects.
Arora has led UDC's participation in X-Culture since 2018, helping students gain practical experience working as global consultants on real-world business challenges. Through the program, students collaborate with teammates from around the world, engage with company founders and executives and develop recommendations for organizations operating in international markets.
Since joining the program, 238 UDC students — including 136 undergraduate students and 102 MBA students — have successfully completed the X-Culture challenge and earned Global Collaboration Certificates. During the Spring 2026 semester, 33 UDC students participated.
According to X-Culture's evaluation data, UDC students delivered strong results.
"The students from the University of the District of Columbia also performed exceptionally well," Taras wrote. "They were well-prepared, proactive in engaging with their international teammates, made strong intellectual contributions and left a very positive impression on their teams."
The recognition highlights Arora's commitment to experiential learning and the success of UDC students in a global learning environment. As businesses increasingly operate across borders and cultures, programs like X-Culture help students develop the communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills needed to succeed in an interconnected world.