According to an interview conducted by Esquire Magazine's official website in August 2012, AJ attended NYU in New York City before financial hardships necessitated her dropping out and focusing on a career in professional wrestling.
I actually went to NYU for six months, had some family issues that kind of set me back, and I couldn't afford to go anymore. That was the theme going on in my whole life, you know: money stopping me from whatever I wanted to do. My dream my entire life was to be a wrestler, so that was my moment where I was like, Okay, let's do it now. I went to wrestling school and found a full-time job to support it.
Her official profile at GloryWrestling.com, a website dedicated to female wrestlers on the Indys, revealed that she majored in film and television production. This revelation puts AJ's success into perspective. Here was a young woman faced with a scenario in which she was forced to drop out of a prestigious school due to money troubles yet never let that hardship derail her. She refocused her attention on a lifelong dream and worked incredibly hard to realize said dream. She starved and drove an endless number of miles in hopes of a paycheck to go along with the experience she would accumulate. That she maintained a full-time job to pay for her "habit" only demonstrates the heart and determination she had to succeed in a business she grew up infatuated with.