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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.

      CMU English Professor Wins National Chapbook Contest

      by Sarah Buckley

      A new chapbook by Central Michigan University English faculty member Jeffrey Bean has won the 2022 Poet’s Corner Contest. 

      Bean says it is a dream come true to have his chapbook, Ella’s Plan, selected by contest judge and nationally acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye, one of his favorite poets.

      “In high school, my creative writing teacher showed me a poem by Nye called ‘Valentine for Ernest Mann.’ It was one of the first poems I ever loved—and one of the first that made me want to write poetry,” Bean said.

      The prize includes a $1,000 honorarium and 20 printed copies of the chapbook, a slim volume of poems.

      The poems in Ella’s Plan feature moving and inspiring portraits of the world of fictional child, Ella, who is part imaginary and part inspired by the poet’s own childhood. 

      In her judge’s statement, Nye writes, “Ella’s Plan is mesmerizing, embodying the real presence of an imaginative, eccentric, tender daydreamer-child . . . I could not look away from these magical poems.”

      Bean says the limited-edition collection printed on letter press and designed by Richard Reitz Smith is gorgeous.

      “I am thrilled with Smith’s vision for this book—I couldn’t be happier with the design,” Bean said.

      Ella’s Plan is available for purchase on the Poet’s Corner website and in downtown Mount Pleasant at Sleepy Dog Books.

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