Interview with Ella "Cheri" Bennett, October 3, 2020
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Ella "Cheri" Bennett served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic from August 1991 to October 1993. As an education volunteer at Maria Nicolasa Billini school in the eastern town of San José de los Llanos, Cheri worked with her host-country counterpart, colleagues, and students to improve the school's dilapidated infrastructure and to develop a Parent Teacher Association. Secondary projects included English tutoring and gardening. Cheri learned of the Peace Corps during her teens through a commercial that aired in the 1970s. A first-generation college student from rural North Carolina, Cheri realized her dream of joining the Peace Corps at the age of 29, upon completing her graduate studies in public administration. In this interview, Cheri discusses her work as a Peace Corps volunteer as well as topics including Spanish language training, stereotypes about Black Americans, intestinal amoebas, and the AIDS epidemic. Cheri met her husband in the Peace Corps, and her daughter was recently evacuated from her own Peace Corps post in the Dominican Republic due to COVID-19 program suspensions.Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview LC Subject
Peace Corps (U.S.) Peace Corps (U.S.)--Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Acculturation Communication and culture Culture Culture shock Intercultural communication Interpersonal communication and culture Interpersonal relations Interpersonal relations and culture Language and culture Language and languages Lifestyles Manners and customs Voluntarism VolunteersInterview Rights
All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.Interview Usage
Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.Restriction
Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.
Add this interview to your cart in order to begin the process of requesting access to a copy of and/or permission to reproduce interview(s).
Bennett, Ella Interview by Olivia Donaldson. 03 Oct. 2020. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Bennett, E. (2020, October 03). Interview by O. Donaldson. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Bennett, Ella, interview by Olivia Donaldson. October 03, 2020, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt714kt394jsc