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A couple of weeks ago, Kendra Koger wrote a “Where Are They Now” article about the cast members of one of BET’s first reality shows, “College Hill.” It was no easy task. Many of the cast members went on to live very normal lives, disappearing from the public eye. Well, one of the more memorable cast members from season 2, Peaches Jasper, saw the article and reached out to let us know the real deal about her and her castmates. We had a chance to speak to Peaches Jasper, whose real name is Alva, the former senior biology major at Langston University, about her experience on “College Hill” and what she’s been up to since she left the show and graduated.

 

Why did you decide to participate in College Hill?

Somebody actually asked me to do it. They were having auditions and somebody thought I would be a good person to be on there.

 

What was one of your favorite memories from filming?

I don’t know if they showed it or not. We had a party. I know they showed the party. But one of my friends, that I invited, she got real, real drunk and was throwing up all over the place.That was funny. She got really sick and I was telling her ‘Stop drinking, stop drinking.’ We had to take her home.

 

A lot of people felt this was a negative portrayal of HBCUs and Black students. Do you agree or were people being a little too conservative?

I think it was people being conservative. Especially Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a conservative state and that’s where we were filmed. I actually think because reality was just now coming over to the Black community. Even if you look at “Basketball Wives” and “Love and Hip Hop,” it’s still causing the same type of uproar that “College Hill” did. We know that reality always edits the worst things to get ratings. I believe they really just went off their first impression because they hadn’t seen anything like that.

And of course the southern people, especially the people that fought so hard for us to get an education, that built these Black schools and support these Black schools. I think they were trying to say let’s not put a representation of ‘this is what Black kids do.’ That’s where our money is going to? So I can kind of understand where they were coming from, they just didn’t know what was going on. And I kind of got mad at “College Hill” because they didn’t show the good and the bad, they just showed the bad.

 

Do people still recognize you?

Girl. People say ‘I know you.’ And I’m like ‘No, you don’t.” And so I use my real name because Peaches is very familiar. I used to live in Florida and people started showing me pictures of when we [the cast members from College Hill] went down there.

 

What’s a particular moment that people reference when they see you?

Most of them reference about me and Jon, which is not a good thing. Laughs. [You may remember that Peaches and Jon got into a fight.]

 And they showed me dancing on there. When they introduced me, they introduced me from the bottom, going all the way to the top. The small waist, you know, the big butt. Back then, the curvy figure was starting to be in.

 

What would you say you learned from the experience?

To take advantage of every opportunity that I have.

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