She considers Carlisle her hometown and has no foreign or regional accent. Without meeting in person, many mistake her full name as Sue Jata, missing that Sujata Chaudhry ’88 is a native of Bombay, India. “This is actually a humorous story I share frequently,” Chaudhry said. “I think often I surprise them when I meet them in person.
“It is all perception and our bias.”
There are approximately 7,000 languages in the world. How many of those do you speak? Chaudhry draws from her personal experiences and her Ship education to help others enhance cross-cultural communication through her consulting company Tangible Development LLC. The company designs courses to develop cultural competency for specific industries. “Shippensburg University embraced me, supported my future goals, and gave me the power to change the world using cultural intelligence,” she said.
Cultural communication is a theme woven into classes at Ship in an effort to prepare students for international work and interaction. “We are living in a more globalized world where there are more international contacts,” said Dr. Jonathan Skaff, professor of history and director of International Studies.