Graduate Students Turn a Storage Room Into a Place to Recharge

The converted space at Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology offers a scalable campus wellness model

At Rutgers, a group of graduate students, faculty and staff set out to answer a simple question: What would a wellness space look like if students designed it themselves?

The project took shape in a small storage room near classrooms at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology on Busch campus. Once filled with unwanted paperwork and outdated university swag, the room is furnished with a futon, beanbags, soft lighting, greenery-inspired décor, wellness resources and a whiteboard with handwritten messages students leave for one another.

Peggy Swarbrick, a research professor in the Applied Psychology Department at the school, set the transformation in motion after noticing students between classes standing in hallways, sitting outdoors when weather allowed or walking elsewhere on campus to find a place to decompress.

Swarbrick, the inaugural director of ScarletWell - an initiative dedicated to promoting the health and wellness of the Rutgers-New Brunswick community - said graduate students face distinct challenges that conventional campus resources don't always address.

"Many students come to class after work or a practicum placement or are managing coursework alongside family responsibilities," Swarbrick said. "They need a quiet, welcoming place where they can gather their thoughts and reboot."

The storage room across from her office offered a potential solution. Once Swarbrick cleared the clutter, she envisioned the small, windowless room as a restorative retreat shaped by the students who would use it.

For Students, by Students

Swarbrick approached master's degree students in search of volunteers for a design team to help determine what the room should become. Ritika Malhotra, who expects to complete the degree at Rutgers in December, joined the effort despite initial doubts about the space.

"When I first saw the room, I thought it was unbelievably small," said Malhotra, who hopes to pursue research in health psychology.

The challenge appealed to her, she said, because it aligned with her interest in how physical surroundings influence wellness.

Malhotra and fellow master's degree students Mariem Abid and Brianna Eng developed a student survey, partnering with research project assistant Tasha Bulgin, Swarbrick, and faculty member Sarah Weinsztok to form the team. Sixty-five GSAPP students responded, offering input on the room's atmosphere, seating, lighting, sensory features, wall displays and anticipated uses.

Their preferences gave the team a clear direction: Students wanted a calm, low-stimulation environment where they could rest and recalibrate between classes. Comfortable seating and soft lighting emerged as priorities, along with wellness resources, calming colors and nature-inspired artwork.

Guided by the survey findings and environmental psychology research, team members drafted individual design mockups, combining elements from each into a unified plan.

Creating a 15-by-9-foot wellness room without windows required creativity. Soft, warm lighting and artificial ivy offset the lack of natural light. A futon and beanbags offered flexible seating without overcrowding the area, giving students options for reading, resting or talking quietly.

Working with less than $1,000 in existing internal funds, the team concentrated its budget on comfortable furnishings and professional carpet cleaning. Painting the room proved too costly, leading Swarbrick to explore the possibility of a student-created mural with the Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Malhotra added a personal touch by handcrafting a clock for the room, assembling its circular face, numbers, and battery-powered mechanism herself.

"Everything in the design came from what students told us they wanted," Swarbrick said. "The room reflects their idea of what would help them feel comfortable, calm, and supported during a busy day."

The Room Serves as a Scalable Model

Completed in April 2025, the wellness room inspired a study published in January in the Journal of American College Health and co-authored by all six members of the project team. The paper describes their use of "co-production design," an approach that emphasizes shared decision-making and responsiveness to student voice.

The authors noted that campus support extends beyond counseling services and wellness workshops: Everyday spaces designed with care and shaped by student input can become a practical resource embedded in academic life.

They added that at a time of rising student mental health needs, the project offers a blueprint and a scalable model for individual academic departments: Campuses can repurpose existing spaces to promote well-being without extensive renovations or large budgets when students help guide the process.

The room has drawn interest elsewhere at Rutgers. Faculty and students from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences visited the space and adapted the team's survey as they develop a similar wellness room in a campus greenhouse.

Swarbrick said the room's accessibility is central to its purpose, remaining unlocked whenever the building is open, to give students a place to drop in from early morning into the evening. A QR code inside invites anonymous feedback on their experiences, with early requests including art supplies and snacks.

For Malhotra, some of the room's smallest details are among the most meaningful. She especially loves the brightly colored stones bearing positive words, which students can pick up and later pass along.

"Sometimes I would go into the room, look at the stones, and see one that said 'Dream,'" Malhotra said. "That word might resonate with me that day, so I would keep it for a while and then give it to someone else I hoped might benefit from it."