The Vision That Changed the Graduate School of Education

This past December, more than 20 Rutgers Graduate School of Education (GSE) staff and faculty members gathered at the New Brunswick campus and walked to Elijah’s Promise, a community soup kitchen, to volunteer. They cooked, shredded turkey, prepared chili and worked side by side for hours. By the end of the day, the GSE team prepared more than 12,000 servings for their community. 

“It was electric,” said Tyler Picone, who has worked as an administrative assistant for Rutgers Alternate Route since September 2019, as well as received their undergraduate and graduate degrees from Rutgers. “We already knew how to work together as a team, so we engaged that skill at Elijah's Promise.”

Tyler is just one of many people who make up GSE’s Sunshine Committee, co-leading the group with a handful of fellow members. In the five years since the committee’s founding, the department has invested in morale-boosting experiences, including this community outreach and service. 

There’s a reason the Sunshine Committee has been such a successful part of GSE, too. It was envisioned as a way to foster community among department staff and faculty.

"The idea was—let’s play a game together, eat together, laugh together. Let’s build relationships,” Tyler said.

It started with the vision of a single staff member with enough sunshine in her heart to bring warmth to the entire GSE.

Channeling the energy into sunshine

That someone was Melissa Thomas, who joined GSE as human resources manager in 2020 and faced more than one big challenge. Melissa not only had to navigate a new job but also one under unprecedented circumstances—the COVID pandemic was in its infancy, limiting community and connection. With nobody having prior experience navigating a pandemic, Melissa stepped in, not only establishing herself as a leader but as someone staff could turn to for support during a time of upheaval. 

“She had a goal to help develop community in the Graduate School of Education,” Tyler said. 

When the beloved end-of-semester celebration was canceled due to the pandemic, Melissa got to work on creative problem-solving, employing the help of volunteer staff, including Rutgers Alternate Route’s very own Tyler. 

The solution? 

Melissa and the volunteers organized a socially distanced celebration in the parking lot. The celebration was back on.

Staff drove through in their cars and received sandwiches and swag bags. People waved, smiled, and felt—if only briefly—connected again.

“That was the first thing that she ever included me in,” Tyler said. “And then from then on, she would reach out to us when she had a community-building idea in the GSE.”

Melissa jumping into action with a community-focused response to the pandemic planted the seeds of what would become GSE’s Sunshine Committee. Over the next several years, Melissa continued reaching out to people who stepped up when help was needed. What began as an informal group slowly grew into a community-focused committee centered on joy and human connection.
 

Growing the committee
 

Pictured: Tyler volunteering at Elijah's Promise

Much of the Sunshine Committee’s growth came from what Melissa called ‘Coffee Connections,’ a monthly event where staff and faculty could gather and get to know one another better. Coffee Connections became a success, and over time, traditions emerged from these bonding opportunities. Now, staff get creative with a door decorating competition to help fight the winter blues, and recently celebrated the fourth Fall Harvest potluck. 

“It’s really one of my favorite events at GSE,” Tyler said of the potluck. 

Another popular event organized by the committee is the ‘I’ve Been Booed’ exchange throughout October, where staff members secretly leave treats and small gifts at each other’s doors. Each surprise comes with an orange card that says ‘I’ve been booed!’

Melissa also modernized how the community celebrated one another, replacing mass birthday emails with personalized Kudoboards—spaces where appreciation felt collective rather than transactional. The goal behind all of it was simple but powerful: help people engage with each other not as job titles, but as humans. Over time, this sentiment began to permeate GSE’s culture, and it is now another of Tyler’s favorite parts of their committee experience. 

“She is the one who created this Sunshine Committee based on people's desire for community,” Tyler said of Melissa’s impact.  
This same spirit came through with the diversity, equity and inclusion work Melissa brought to help rework the systems at GSE to be more equitable for all, creating a safer environment for faculty and staff. 

“She really pushed the graduate school into a space of discussion around things that were really, really challenging,” Tyler said. “And I think that culture has noticeably changed for the better. … I think people want to be here more.”

Honoring Melissa’s impact through actions

Then, in June 2024, Melissa passed away at 44. It was a seismic event for GSE staff, who grieved as a community.

“It really was a transformative experience for people here because it's not a common experience to lose somebody in that way,” Tyler said. “She had a sunshine in her. And that’s really where the Sunshine Committee comes from.”

In the wake of her passing, staff had tough discussions surrounding the Sunshine Committee’s future. Leadership encouraged group members to keep it alive, but nobody wanted to replace Melissa. Instead, committee members chose to decentralize leadership.

“It’s not about titles,” said Tyler. “It’s about passion and communication. People take ownership of what they care about.”

Today, the Sunshine Committee functions as a shared ecosystem rather than a top-down structure. Members step in where they have energy, step back when life gets busy and trust others to carry the work forward.
This model has allowed the committee not only to survive, but to grow and thrive. In the year and a half since Melissa’s passing, membership expanded, annual traditions continued and the committee pushed beyond internal community-building into collective service. 

The work at Elijah’s Promise is an example of that collective service, and particularly memorable for one small detail. As the committee’s members were walking back to campus, someone made a powerful connection regarding the date. 
“That’s when it really hit us,” Tyler said. “The day we finally made this happen—it was Melissa’s birthday.”

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