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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.

      English Department staff member wins short story contest

      by Sarah Buckley

      While forwarding announcements to Department of English Language and Literature faculty and students last fall, Administrative Secretary Megan Stevens noticed one that caught her eye: the Write Michigan Short Story Contest.

      “I’d been working on a short story around that time, so I figured I’d give it a shot,” Stevens said.

      She entered the contest and won the “Judges’ Choice” award for writers 18 and older. She received $500, and her story will appear in a forthcoming Write Michigan anthology.

      Stevens' story, “Carrion Crow,” is about a folk singer coming home to deal with her father’s funeral and her relationship with her missing twin sister. 

      “It was inspired by Connie Converse, who was a singer that just drove away from her life one day and was never seen again, and by Margaret MacArthur, who was a more traditional folk singer and musician,” Stevens said. “I thought the two of them sounded a little bit alike in recordings and figured, what if they were sisters?”

      Sponsored by Write Michigan, this annual contest began in 2012 and is open to all Michigan residents. The contest is presented by the Kent District Library and Schuler Books in Grand Rapids.

      Stevens holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Hope College.

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