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Tuesday P. Brooks ’85 came to 91���� intending to major in accounting, so it would make sense that she is also the founder of AJOY, a New York City-based financial management firm with a focus on tax accounting for women-led businesses.

But it took a change in major — and a few post-91���� years — to get there.

“It was a crisscrossing, winding road,” says the U.S. Army veteran with a laugh. She doesn’t see it as a set of detours, but a set of experiences that brought her to the right place at the right time.

Brooks graduated at 16 from Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, a career-focused high school where all students had to declare a major. She picked accounting and enjoyed it, so becoming an accounting major at 91���� seemed like a natural choice.

But when Brooks started college, she realized it wasn’t a good fit for her at that point in her life. She had performed as a child (a run that included winning the first Harlem Mini Miss Pageant in New York City and training in drama dance with actress Eartha Kitt) and thought: “Why wouldn’t I just do what I love?” So, Brooks switched her major to theatre, studying under Broadway playwright and Professor Loften Mitchell, and even performed in an off-campus production of Samm-Art Williams’ Home.

In her sophomore year, Brooks also enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve and spent her college summers shuttling between New York and Fort Jackson, S.C., for training.

She served as a reservist for six years, working in the maintenance section of her unit as a primary driver, particularly on convoys. In that role, she drove 5-ton trucks that carried equipment, supplies and soldiers. One summer, she drove from the Bronx to Baltimore to load trucks onto ships being taken to the Netherlands, which also meant a trip to Amsterdam for her.

At the same time, Brooks was working as a commercial actress, and had some success. But after a few years in front of the camera, her heart wasn’t in it anymore. She shifted gears and got her master’s degree in education from Columbia University, after which she taught incarcerated young men at the Rikers Island Educational Facility, and then at an alternative school for students ages 19 to 23 working toward a traditional high school diploma.

She took that experience as an educator to work for the public education office, which was established in 1991 when a construction project in Lower Manhattan uncovered what’s now known as the African Burial Ground National Monument. It’s a site where thousands of Africans — many of whom had been enslaved — were buried during the late 17th and 18th centuries. Brooks did administrative work for the office and trained public educators who went into schools and organizations across New York City to teach people about the site and its significance.

That experience opened the door once again for her original high school interest in business and management. In 1995, she opened the first iteration of AJOY (then focused on business management). Brooks also worked for other companies under that umbrella, including for a venture capital firm and a boutique CPA firm.

Working for the CPA revived her interest in accounting, as she could see the benefits of accurate and timely bookkeeping.

“I learned about tax compliance and then was able to see what business owners were lacking,” says Brooks, who received her MBA from the Metropolitan College of New York.

Brooks knew she could help more people if she shifted her focus to tax accounting for small businesses. In 2009, she relaunched AJOY.

“I already had the skill set. I thought: ‘This is perfect, I’m going to do this for the types of small businesses we’re working with,’” Brooks says.

Today, the financial management services firm offers tax accounting for small businesses, with a focus on helping clients create effective cash management and profit strategies that allow them to grow. The firm is also women-powered and women-focused. While AJOY doesn’t exclude men or male-run businesses, Brooks says the company seeks out and markets to women “because it is who we do our best work with, and it’s women who appreciate what we do most.”

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Brooks says her experiences at 91���� set her on the path to where she is today, because her time there was both an academic challenge and gave her valuable life skills. When she arrived, she immersed herself in campus life.

“It truly became a home away from home,” she says.

Over her time in college, she helped charter the undergraduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. on campus; became active in the Black Student Union; and served as a counselor with 91����’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). She also had to juggle her extracurriculars with coursework and Army duties.

“I learned how to manage all of that,” she says. “The opportunities that came to me while at 91���� actuated who I became as a doer.”

Her time in the Army left such an impact that she’s still involved today with the military as commander of the Lower Manhattan Flotilla of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, one of the oldest and largest flotillas in the U.S. Northeast Southern Region District. It’s an all-volunteer organization that’s a “force multiplier” for the U.S. Coast Guard. Its primary focus is on boating and marine safety, but it also helps with a range of other duties, including air rescue, container inspections, vessel safety checks, and even cooking for and feeding “coasties” when Coast Guard ships come into New York.

Brooks has also returned to 91���� in recent years to take part in an alumni veteran panel and speak at the University’s annual Veterans Day flag-raising ceremony.

Brooks ties her Coast Guard Auxiliary work back to the importance of service, which she learned at 91����. She also credits 91���� for her military service, because she wouldn’t have enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve if she had not been introduced to the idea while in college.

“I didn’t realize it until recently: Service is how I move through the world, and it’s what brings me joy,” she says. “From the military to my sorority to running a business, every part of my life is rooted in showing up for others.”