UCO College of Business Student Wins Best Team Award in Global Consulting Competition
April 11, 2025
University of Central Oklahoma College of Business student Jessica Allen, a senior management major from Yukon, Oklahoma, recently earned international recognition as part of a winning team in the prestigious X-Culture Global, an international virtual consulting competition.
Allen and her team were awarded the Best Team Award for their exceptional consulting work with Radico, a real-world client company.
X-Culture is a global experiential learning platform that challenges university students to collaborate across borders and tackle real business problems. A total of 6,100 students from 135 universities across six continents participated in the competition. Of 98 finalist teams, only 14 were honored with the Best Team distinction.
Allen’s team included Anna Guseva from the University of Galway in Ireland, Brett Goldberg from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, Samira Hajialikhamseh from the University of Messina in Italy and, Saravanan K from the Indian Institute of Management in India. Saheli Nath, Ph.D., associate professor of management at UCO, supported Allen.
"The X-Culture Competition provided me with valuable experience in collaborating and communicating with a diverse group. It also exposed us to real-world business problems that different companies face," Allen said.
"Coming from different colleges across the globe, our team’s biggest challenge was making sure that our work met the requirements and expectations of each professor, as well as X-Culture. Since we were collaborating across various time zones, we had limited moments to connect in real time. We had to manage our time effectively and use every available opportunity to check in on our progress and plan next steps."
The team succeeded through strategic time management and consistent virtual collaboration despite the logistical challenges. Their success earned them certificates of excellence and invitations to participate in the upcoming X-Culture Symposia and Coaching Program.
Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, X-Culture hosts more than 6,500 MBA and business students from more than 150 universities in 70 countries on six continents every semester. As of 2024, more than 120,000 students have participated in the program, making it one of the largest and most respected global business competitions in higher education.
For more information about X-Culture, visit go.uco.edu/X-Culture.
For more information about the College of Business, visit www.uco.edu/business.
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Cutline: University of Central Oklahoma College of Business student Jessica Allen, a senior management major from Yukon, Oklahoma, and a team of four others recently earned the Best Team Award for their work on the company Radico in the X-Culture Competition, a global virtual consulting competition.
