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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.
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.
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Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.
For young teens struggling with social isolation in pandemic times, a smartphone can be a lifeline. But too much Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and the like can be unhealthy.
That's where Central Michigan University psychology faculty member Sarah Domoff comes in.
Backed by a grant from the Detroit-based Children's Foundation, Domoff will teach middle school teachers and students in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula to avoid cyberbullying, dangerous content, sleeplessness and other problems linked to social media overuse.
"Teens need to learn to navigate their digital worlds in healthy ways," Domoff said.
She and her team of student research assistants in CMU's Family Health Lab are partnering with the Delta Schoolcraft Intermediate School District to train two teachers this summer and follow up with weekly phone calls through the school year. Those first two trainees will introduce the program to other teachers and counselors.
Domoff will assess results with an eye toward expanding the program.
"If we find this is effective, we absolutely would love to bring it to more schools around the state," she said.
The program will reach about 300 sixth and eighth-grade students in the Gladstone and Escanaba school districts starting this fall.
Six health class lessons will cover topics such as how social media content affects teens, how to critically assess information, how to be mindful about sharing and privacy, and how to avoid cyberbullying and support victims.
These issues affect not only teens but also educators who set policies for use of digital devices at school and deal with the fallout from their use and misuse. Domoff will follow up with both groups to measure the program's effectiveness.
"This is really the first foray into evaluating: 'Does this work? Does it improve outcomes for teachers and administrators?'" Domoff said. "But also, we want to know: 'Does this work to improve healthy digital media use with youth?'"
Domoff advises teens to use social media in healthy ways to prevent burnout and overload, especially in the COVID-19 era.
Domoff provides a list of online resources for families coping with the pandemic. Commonsensemedia.org offers additional resources for social media use.
Kristine Paulsen, educational consultant with Delta Schoolcraft ISD, said the work of Domoff and her team popped up right away when she began searching for ways to help the district address issues with digital devices.
"Technology has so many benefits, but at the same time it presents so many challenges to make sure you're using it in healthy, productive ways," she said.
Paulsen emailed Domoff, and the partnership grew from there.
"To be able to access and learn from their research I think is going to be huge," she said. "This provides an opportunity to really learn strategies that will benefit not only our students but have the potential to benefit students throughout the state and around the country.
"There's going to be a ripple effect."
Explore special opportunities to learn new skills and travel the world.
Present your venture and win BIG at the New Venture Challenge.
Boost your entrepreneurial skills through our workshops, mentor meetups and pitch competitions.
Learn about the entrepreneurship makerspace on campus in Grawn Hall.
Present a 2-minute pitch at the Make-A-Pitch Competition and you could win prizes and bragging rights!
Connect with mentors and faculty who are here to support the next generation of CMU entrepreneurs.
Are you a CMU alum looking to support CMU student entrepreneurs? Learn how you can support or donate to the Entrepreneurship Institute.