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Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship
We are a dedicated institute for student entrepreneurs across campus and beyond. We aim to maximize your success by fostering your entrepreneurial mindset, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration and provide support for the creation and development of your new ventures. Jumpstart your ideas and get involved today!
Tune in for excitement!
Passion. Potential. Pitches. Don't miss any of the 2025 New Venture Challenge excitement.
Tune in Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m. for great ideas and fierce competition. Then, join the judges, mentors, spectators and teams as they see who is going home with thousands of dollars in venture financing. The awards broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. and one team will walk away as the overall best venture.
Start your entrepreneurial journey
Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration is the home of the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship and the first Department of Entrepreneurship in the state of Michigan. We are a student-centric hub where experiential, curricular, and external entrepreneurial opportunities intersect.
Our mission is to maximize student success by fostering a campus-wide entrepreneurial mindset that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new ventures.
We aim to create innovative programming, boost cross-campus and ecosystem collaboration and provide a comprehensive mentoring program.
Our institute provides extracurricular opportunities and is open to all undergraduate and graduate CMU students.
Student opportunities
- Meet experienced alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other business and political leaders.
- Learn practical skills, innovative thinking, and connect with mentors and entrepreneurial resources.
- Attend skill-building workshops and compete in pitch competitions and Hackathons.
- Take part in special scholarship programs and travel experiences.
- Pitch your venture at our signature New Venture Challenge event and compete for up to $20,000 in cash awards.
Find your path
Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?
Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.
2022 Pulitzer Prize Winner Visits with Creative Writing Graduate Students
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Students in Professor Robert Fanning’s Graduate Seminar in Poetry had the incredible opportunity to learn from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Diane Seuss when she spoke with the class via WebEx on Oct. 5.
Seuss is the author of frank: sonnets, her award-winning memoir in sonnets. She answered questions about the craft and process of her sonnet-making, but also about her life.
In frank: sonnets, Diane’s life—with all of its joys and pains—is on full display for the reader. Being a writer who has found her voice and power in sharing hard truths, she answered graduate student Jordyn Damato’s question about how to do just that.
“Remember that a poem is a piece of art,” Seuss said. “Use your power. Use whatever you’ve got. We have the power. We can tell our stories.”
Over her career, Seuss has learned that writing the most challenging personal stories creates the most powerful poems, a point that impressed another master of arts candidate, Sammantha Loveless. “Diane Seuss taught me that there’s something so powerful about an experience we’ve lived,” Loveless said, “and we relive it through writing.”
Only two other Michigan poets, Theodore Roethke and Philip Levine, have won the Pulitzer—both of whom moved out of state. Speaking of that, Seuss said, “The difference is those guys left. I’m not going anywhere. Michigan is my home.”
In closing, Seuss, who was a visitor on campus for the Meijer Visiting Writers Series in 2017, told the students she only wishes she could have been in the room and that she would love to get to know all of them and their writing.
“Goodbye, sweeties,” she said. “Now go shatter the world with your poems.”
Signature Programs
Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship
Explore special opportunities to learn new skills and travel the world.
Compete & Win
New Venture Challenge 2025
Present your venture and win BIG at the New Venture Challenge.
Build your skills
Workshops and events
Boost your entrepreneurial skills through our workshops, mentor meetups and pitch competitions.
Develop your ideas
IDEA Den
Learn about the entrepreneurship makerspace on campus in Grawn Hall.
Ready, Set, Pitch!
Make-A-Pitch 2024
Present a 2-minute pitch at the Make-A-Pitch Competition and you could win prizes and bragging rights!
Meet Mentors
Mentorship and support
Connect with mentors and faculty who are here to support the next generation of CMU entrepreneurs.
Support students
Make an impact
Are you a CMU alum looking to support CMU student entrepreneurs? Learn how you can support or donate to the Entrepreneurship Institute.
View our programming newsletter
Alumni give back to students through mentorship, real-world experiences
The Wakeling Gendron Entrepreneurial Scholars program wrapped its first cohort this academic year.
Students compete to win cash prizes at the New Venture Challenge
Pitched 40 ventures at NMV Challenge, Friday, April 19, CMU. Judges awarded $100,000 in cash prizes.
Wakeling Gendron Scholars make a life-changing trip to Texas
Wakeling and Gendron Scholars attended SXSW in Texas, meeting industry leaders and gaining entrepreneurial insights.
Business barriers lead CMU students to a new venture
Justin Ashman and Philip Mundt won Central Michigan University's New Venture Competition with their 3-D printing operation, Form Further.
