Remember Peaches From “College Hill”? Find Out What She’s Up To Now

What did you do immediately after graduation?

I got married. Laughs. [Her name now is Alva Francois.] I have one daughter, she’s twelve. I am now a minister. I preach now. I work in the church. I did a play with Marvin Winans Jr. I started my own ministry with young adults called Next Level Up. And next month, I’m going to launch a girls mentoring program called Pretty As A Peach for ages 12-23. So, I’ve been mentoring young women and doing things like. So I’m a whole 180 from what they’ve seen. A whole 180.

When would you say you got into your spirituality?

I grew up in the church. I am a preacher’s kid. See, that’s the part that they didn’t show on “College Hill.” They didn’t show me praying or reading my word. Because even when I was in the house, I still was praying, reading my word. They didn’t really take us to church or anything. I just wasn’t like Tanisha, ‘I’m a Christian, I’m a Christian’ but I’ve always had faith in God, I’ve always walked with God, I’ve always been a very strong, spiritual person. I’ve always had a love for God since I was a child.

When did you know that you were going to preach?

Girl, I been knowing I was going to preach since I was about 18 years old. They had actually been trying to get me to preach, the Baptist association and ministers were trying to get me to be licensed and start preaching. Some people are called to be teachers, some people are called to be lawyers and I was called to work for Christ, work for the body of Christ. And I really enjoy it. I have a peace about it.

Do you female preachers still catch pushback?

Yes we do. Southern Baptist Churches do not recognize female pastors. You can’t be in a pulpit and you can’t be a pastor in that denomination. So we do still catch a lot of flack. It’s also hard for female preachers to get a lot of pastor positions, youth pastors. A lot of times, you have to be the elite of the the elite. You have a doctorate of theology for them to even look at you. It kind of motivates you to go back to school, like I’m going back to school now. And if you’re single, it’s even worse.

Where did the name Peaches come from?

My mother. That’s all she ate and craved when she was pregnant. That’s why she named me Peaches. Some of the church people criticized me about it a little bit. They kept saying that was my stage name. And I was like ‘Stage name?’ What?’ That’s what my mom named me. I’ve been having that name. Because I catch a lot of flack about the stripper because “College Hill” was the first to expose that. So I catch flack in the church and a lot of young women. I guess they thought my stage name was Peaches but it wasn’t because that was my name so I had to use something else.