Follow me: Exploring social media marketing

Mentor: Dr. Shelly Bhowmik ‘03

Students: Vedika Amin, Pallavi Saxena, Lauren Kim

Offering hands-on experience working for a solo-preneur is exactly what Dr. Shelly Bhowmik ’03 had in mind when Exeter interns joined her to help market her consulting practice, Platform Wellness. Bhowmik, a physician, is a workplace well-being consultant who supports women of color to combat stress and burnout. “Once these students leave Exeter,” she says, “they’ll encounter so many different scenarios, and I wanted to help them understand how to navigate those situations.”
Bhowmik charged her three interns with creating a year’s worth of social media content for her business. “As an entrepreneur and a minority woman-owned business,” she says, “I rely on social media to attract corporate clients, and it’s important that I present the right information to the right audience.

Drawn to the internship because of its proximity to diversity, equity and inclusion issues, Lauren Kim ’24 researched and wrote blog articles about topics affecting women of color in the workplace, including diversification, burnout and obtaining employee/care-giver benefits. She also generated content for the company’s social media outlets and mailing list. Kim was surprised to learn about the high burnout rate among women of color in corporate settings, especially after major technology company layoffs.

“The leaders we met through Dr. Bhowmik really helped me understand the preventative wellness and DEI field, something I wasn’t familiar with before,” Kim says. “I also gained a greater understanding of typical workplace environments and employee experiences within a DEI framework."

Bhowmik was open to working with Exeter students because “I demand excellence from myself,” she says, “and that’s what you get with Exeter students. I knew they’d bring forward quality work.”

This story was originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

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