Interview with J. Henry "Hank" Ambrose, March 17, 2021
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
J. Henry "Hank" Ambrose served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya from 1971-1973 and as a Peace Corps campus recruiter at the University of Cincinnati, 1974-1975. He talks about his involvement in Civil Rights protests at Emory University, being home in Memphis when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated and his decision to transfer to the Peace Corps/College Degree Program at the State University of New York at Brockport, where he completed his degree in mathematics and trained for service in Peru. He explains how he ended up serving in Kenya as a mathematics instructor at Kenyatta College. He discusses: his teaching experience; being the only African American volunteer in two training programs; his friendships with Black and white volunteers and others in Kenya; and his travels in East and West Africa. He reflects on the impact Peace Corps had on his life relative to Peace Corps' goals. He concludes discussing issues related to Black RPCV’s participation in, and his leadership roles in, the National Peace Corps Association.Interview Accession
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Peace Corps (U.S.) Minority volunteers African Americans. Kenya. College teachers. Mathematics teachers Mathematics. 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
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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.
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Ambrose, J. Henry Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 17 Mar. 2021. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Ambrose, J.H. (2021, March 17). Interview by E. Ganzglass. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Ambrose, J. Henry, interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. March 17, 2021, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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