Fort Valley State University campus, and 85% of the student body are full-time students. The university is located in the town of Fort Valley in Peach County, the original site of the state's peach industry. Its 1,365-acre (5.52 km) campus is Georgia's second-largest public university in area. Fort Valley State University (formerly Fort Valley State College) began with the 1939 consolidation of the Fort Valley High and Industrial School (chartered in 1895) and the State Teachers and Agricultural College of Forsyth (founded in 1902). The Fort Valley High and Industrial School, previously affiliated with the American Church Institute of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was
Peach State Summer Theatre Theatre reps travelled to Jekyll Island to present three musicals during a 9-week period. By 2005, budget restraints within the state’s university system resulted in moving the program from Jekyll to Valdosta and the creation of Peach State Summer Theatre, or PSST. Peach State has maintained the repertory tradition of the Jekyll Island Musical Theatre Festival by presenting three musicals each summer in VSU’s Sawyer Theatre in the Fine Arts Building. Casting notices take two to three years to reach potential employees. In the summer of 2010 Peach State Summer Theatre celebrated 20 years of professional musical theatre in South