Wes McRae | Atlanta, GA – September 9, 2026

Many spring breaks send college students to the beach, but Danielle Willkens's idea of a coastal trip brought a group to a small, historic campus on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The alternative spring break, supported by a 2025–2026 Georgia Tech Arts Catalyst Grant, gave students, faculty, and staff a chance to make art, dig into history, and engage with Gullah Geechee culture.

"Jennifer Lux from Scheller College of Business and I designed the program to get a mix of Tech participants to the Penn Center," Willkens said. "It was an alternative spring break that bridged art, history, and community through an immersive experience." The Penn Center is the site of the former Penn School, one of the first schools in the country built to educate formerly enslaved people.

Georgia Tech has an established relationship with the Penn Center, Willkens said, including  historic preservation and the development of a resilience hub. She became involved with the Penn Center a few years ago and has since led Georgia Tech-supported fieldwork there, through a spring 2024 seminar and a fall 2024 senior architecture studio. She now serves on the Penn Center's Board of Trustees.

"There is also a natural connection between Atlanta and the site due to the Modern Civil Rights movement: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, spent time at the site," Willkens said.

"Participants in the program discovered a place haunted by the past yet surrounded by natural beauty and a rich legacy of education and advocacy."

A Four-Day Immersion Fostering Community

Over four days, participants lived and learned at the Penn Center while creating artistic responses to the place around them. "They spent their days exploring the campus, engaging with Gullah Geechee culture, and developing work" Willkens said. "Evenings featured work-in-progress critiques, fostering a supportive community of practice."

The lack of opportunity for faculty, staff, and student interaction in an informal, non-academic setting helped drive the project proposal, Willkens said. "We wanted to provide a platform for collaboration off-site and in a layered and inspiring landscape."

"At the Penn Center, people were not defined by their age, discipline, or role at GT: instead, we were a community of artists and explorers."

"This initiative cultivates joy, community, and engagement through the arts," Willkens said. "By creating space for artistic expression across the Georgia Tech community, we acknowledge that creativity and cultural understanding are essential to the human experience and to building a more positive, connected academic environment."

"The Penn Center alternative spring break represents Georgia Tech at its best: innovative, collaborative, and engaged with the communities and histories that shape our world."