Joni Mae enrolled in Oakwood College in 1946, the year the Aeolians, a select choir consisting of 16 voices, started. For the next two years she sang in that group, under the direction of Eva Beatrice Dykes, and was featured as a soloist. She transferred to Emmanuel Missionary College, now Andrews University, in 1948, where she could complete an accredited degree. Although OC had started a four-year program in 1943, it would not be accredited until 1958.

She sang in AU's choirs, directed by Melvin Davis and Estelle Kiehnoff, completing her B.A. in music and French in 1950. Two years after her marriage to Sam Pierre-Louis in 1952, she accepted a position as a music teacher at Oakwood College. Joni Mae continued study at Northwestern University and Case Western Reserve in Cleveland and then returned to complete an M.A. in music at AU in 1964.

In 1955, Pierre-Louis followed Eva Dykes as conductor of the Aeolians. She expanded the size of the group to 40 and used it to aggressively promote the college with extensive touring. During the next nine years she traveled widely, singing in California, on the West Coast, in the Midwest, and on the East Coast. In her last year as director, the group sang at the 1965 New York World's Fair. While there they appeared on the Strike it Rich television program, where they made a successful appeal for assistance in obtaining new choir robes.

In 1965, the Pierre-Louis family moved to California, where she assisted in voice instruction at Pacific Union College.

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