[Veronica] Ota is a graduate of Tufts University with a degree in international literary studies with a focus in Japanese literature.  She taught English as a second language in Shizuoka through the Japan Exchange and teaching Program, and she studied Hiroshima and Nagasaki hibakusha haiku, utilizing the themes of the poetry to provide an ethical framework of nuclear nonproliferation and to share a new expression of peace advocacy.

…for the fourth straight year, she has completed teaching a Summer Peace Camp for young children at the church, where 27 campers and over 40 volunteers demonstrated God’s peace through faith, hope and love.