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.

2025 NVC Competition Live Stream

2025 NVC Awards Live Stream

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.

A student standing with a faculty member holding big winning checks from the New Venture Challenge 2024.

Start up

Build up your venture idea.

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A student smiling and standing in front of his venture display at the 2024 New Venture Challenge.

Family business

Explore the Alternative Entrepreneurial Pathways category at NVC.

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A close-up of the Prusa i3 MK3 printer in the entrepreneurship makerspace, the IDEA Den in Grawn Hall 166.

Product and prototype design

Create and patent your ideas.

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Innovation

Explore your ideas and build your skills.

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CMU among the top of state universities in job placements

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A higher percentage of recent Central Michigan University graduates reported finding employment within six months than those at nearly every other Michigan university, according to the most current publicly available data.

Seventy-eight percent of them were still living in Michigan, said Rob VanDorin, director of CMU’s Career Development Center.

Among three graduating classes from August and December 2021 and May 2022, 93.7 percent of former students reported either being employed or pursuing more education within six months of leaving CMU, VanDorin said. This places CMU among the highest in the state for public institutions.

It’s also CMU’s highest percentage in 10 years, VanDorin said. Prior to 2021-22, CMU’s highest percentage of students employed or pursuing more education was 93.4 percent in 2017-18.

Of the 615 respondents to the First Destination Survey, approximately 75 percent said they were employed or volunteering; another 20 percent said they were pursuing additional education, according to survey results.

Graduates from two colleges – the College of Business Administration and the College of Health Professions – reported the highest rates of employment at 95 percent or higher.

They also reported earning an average annual income of $48,901. That is $14,000 higher than the average Michigan income of $34,768, as reported in the latest Census.

CMU’s First Destination Survey was based on National Association of Colleges and Employers guidelines. Data gathered from 2021-22 is also the most current data available among Michigan’s public universities.

Universities are not required to report employment data after six months and not all universities share their data publicly, VanDorin said.

“Based on current publicly available first destination data we have from more than ten public institutions, we are proud that CMU students are finding first destination success, at the second highest rate in the state,” VanDorin said. “CMU’s Career Development Center continues to development new programming and resources, while assisting students earlier in their career exploration journey, to strive to push this rate even higher.”