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Alison Peebles

peebles_a.jpg“I had drifted away from church because I had questions no one could or would answer,” Alison Peebles says. “The CCO provided a community of people and a safe place to explore those questions. Without the CCO, there would have been no opportunity to talk about my Christian faith and issues related to faith; there would have been no forum to be challenged and supported.”

And likely, Alison wouldn’t be as involved in her church congregation as she is today.

Alison Peebles currently serves as Program Manager an organization called Public Allies , a nonprofit organization whose focus is on training community leaders. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005 with a degree in statistics with a focus on social psychology.

Alison grew up attending a Presbyterian church, but she stopped going toward the end of her high school years. More than a year after starting college at CMU, health problems and a difficult breakup with a boyfriend drove her back to church. She sought out the closest Presbyterian congregation to the campus, which is how she ended up attending Shadyside Presbyterian Church. During her first Sunday there, she noticed an ad for the college fellowship, Alpha.

“I decided to go, and I just kept coming back,” she says. “The students and staff there were so supportive and I found myself experiencing God through the people around me.” For the rest of her time at CMU, Alison immersed herself in the campus ministry community, and she says that’s where she really found direction for her life.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do after college,” she says. “But I learned from participating in Bible studies and attending the Jubilee conference that I could serve God wherever I worked. I learned that we need Christian biochemists, bankers, English lit professors and writers. I learned that I didn’t need to be an ordained minister to serve God. The Jubilee book table is the best thing in the world—it’s amazing to see that people are really thinking and writing about this stuff.”

One of Alison’s CCO staff workers told her about a program called Mission Year, and she decided to apply. After graduating from CMU in 2005, Alison moved to Oakland, California to spend a year living in community with other young Christian women and serving the underprivileged people in her neighborhood. It was a life-changing year for her.

“I’m tempted to say that the CCO had more of an impact on my life than CMU did,” Alison says. “As I think about the past five years, I can see clearly how my life has changed. The CCO and Mission Year taught me that I have worth outside of academics.”

After her year in California, Alison returned to Pittsburgh, and today she lives in community with another of her former CCO staff workers, and she attends The Open Door, a community-focused church planted by Pittsburgh Presbytery in the East End of the city.

“The CCO definitely helped shape my worldview,” Alison says. “Through my job and at my church, I am helping build the kingdom by serving the least of these. I hope the way I treat people shows my faith. I am constantly asking myself questions like, ‘Am I serving people? Am I being ethical? Am I stewarding God’s resources?’ It wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask those questions if not for the CCO’s influence.”