Interview with Patricia Elser Gillespie, April 22, 2022

Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project

Interview Summary

Patricia Elser Gillespie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program in Malaysia from 1966-68. She and her husband and fellow PCV taught English in Labuan Island. She proudly talks about her students and their subsequent careers. She recounts developing a school newspaper with her husband, who taught in another school, in which a Malaysian student from one school and a Chinese student from the other school, worked well together. She discusses this and discrimination against the Chinese student. She also talks about playing soccer with students, her British Headmaster, help she got from her husband teaching algebra. She also discusses growing up in Ohio, her early motivation to join the Peace Corps, Peace Corps training on the big island in Hawaii, her return trips to Malaysia and the region as a film maker, and the impact Peace Corps service has had on her life.

Interview Accession

2022oh1506_pcrv0595

Interviewee Name

Patricia Elser Gillespie

Interviewer Name

Evelyn Ganzglass

Interview Date

2022-04-22

Interview Rights

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Gillespie, Patricia Elser Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 22 Apr. 2022. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Gillespie, P.E. (2022, April 22). 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.

Gillespie, Patricia Elser, interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. April 22, 2022, 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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Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt755prkr67tw