A Mother and Entrepreneur Creates Community for Her Fellow Moms
In the fall of 2020, in a world closed off and shut down, Shenaya Martin MBA’25 was going through a difficult time.
Still reeling from a personal tragedy only the year before, Martin welcomed her baby son, Logic, who was born premature and spent 43 days in the neonatal intensive care unit before he could come home.
Martin found herself full of complicated and contradictory emotions. “I was grieving and celebrating,” says Martin, who goes by “Nay.” At the same time, she was dealing with multiple chronic medical conditions while feeling isolated, the pandemic cutting her off from family and friends.
Martin had, in short, a lot going on. She needed support. “I was on social media,” she says. “It wasn’t giving me what I needed and wanted.” That’s when she decided to tap into her entrepreneurial spirit. “Where do I find a village?” she says. “I needed to create my own village.”
In that hard, dark fall of 2020, Martin launched a social support group for mothers, Zooming Moms, that allowed them to come together online for conversation, encouragement, and friendship. Since then, the group has grown, offering in-person and virtual events, and once Martin came to Babson College to earn her MBA, she again saw a need for mom support. That is why she started a second group, Moms at Babson.
The life of mothers can be joyful and fulfilling but also tiring and overwhelming. As a leader of the two mom groups, Martin believes in the power of community to lift up its members. “Together is better,” she says. “Let’s come together. Let’s be happy for each other. Let’s build this mountain together.”
Teaching and Supporting
Martin brings an openness to the two mom groups. She has faced challenges in her life and is not shy about talking about them. She considers that candidness to be a reaction, at least in part, to the secrecy of her mother. “My mother had MS and said, ‘Don’t tell anyone about it,’ ” Martin says. “I thought, ‘Why?’ ”
Just like her mother, Martin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, as well as other conditions, including the skin disease vitiligo and the autoimmune disease scleroderma. In the mom groups, she shares details of her health. She’s also open about the tragedy that befell her and her husband, Derick, in 2019 when they suffered the late-term pregnancy loss of their twins, Asha and Belle.
These are not easy subjects to discuss, but for Martin, talking about them helps. “It brings me joy and energy when I do share,” she says. “I need to share this so everyone else can know they are not alone.”
When Martin hosted the first Zoom call for Zooming Moms, she was unsure of who would show up, but a community soon grew, with moms from all over the country. Mothers talked about all the many issues that surround raising a child, from postpartum anxiety and mental health to a baby’s diet and tips for having children sleep in their own beds. “They would just chat. It was therapeutic,” Martin says. “People told me, ‘This is what I needed.’ ”
By the following spring, Martin registered the group as a 501(c)(7) nonprofit and began to expand its offerings. The group has held retreats and provides support to moms who are entrepreneurs, spotlighting their businesses in video blogs and organizing tech workshops.
As an entrepreneur herself, Martin wants to give a helping hand to others like her. “Each one teach one, each one support one” is one of her favorite sayings. “It’s like a mantra,” she says. “It’s something I believe in.”
Feeling Blessed
Before starting Zooming Moms, Martin earned her master’s degree in social work and worked at a child and family service agency. To grow Zooming Moms, though, she realized she needed more expertise and decided to return to school for an MBA.
Not long after arriving at Babson last year and starting in the One-Year MBA program, Martin sought out fellow moms and sensed a familiar need for community. For the second time, she started a group. Moms at Babson puts on events, hosting brunch and date night for parents, and Martin helped Babson’s human resources partner with a local childcare provider, giving Babson parents another option for daycare.
For Martin’s efforts, she was awarded a Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award, which recognizes Babson community members who embody King’s principles. “It was a proud moment for me,” Martin says. “Wherever I go, I try to leave my mark and be remembered in some way.”
Babson proved a busy and rewarding time for Martin, but it also had tough moments. In January, Martin faced new health issues, with an abnormal heartbeat and a collapsed lung. “Some, at that point, might have wanted to drop the program,” she says. “Once I was released from the hospital, I thought, ‘No, I got to continue to work.’ ”
Martin’s work at Babson concludes this week with graduation. She’ll then focus on building up Zooming Moms, and she’ll do so with new additions in tow—Martin is happy to share that she’s pregnant again with twins. After all the personal challenges she has faced, after all the hard work of going to graduate school while being a mom to a 4-year-old, the news of her pregnancy has left her feeling blessed.
“Ending the MBA program with this news feels meaningful,” she says. “This is the beginning of a new journey for me, and I am grateful to have Babson College as part of it.”
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