Ava first visited Japan in her junior year at Oberlin College, studying for a semester in Kyoto. Upon graduating with a degree in History and East Asian Studies, she began a career in education. She started in museums such as the New York Historical Society, developing programming for K-12 students and families. In 2019, Ava was awarded the Oberlin Shansi Fellowship and returned to Japan to teach English at J.F. Oberlin University. During her two years in Tokyo, she taught English, honed her Japanese language skills through a summer language intensive in Hokkaido, and organized and led extracurricular cultural exchange programs for students interested in studying English or living abroad. Ava received her master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2024. She is currently a high school social studies teacher at Millennium Brooklyn High School, where she teaches seniors. In addition to travel, education, and history, Ava loves collecting knick-knacks, cooking, bicycling, and hiking. She is proficient in Japanese.