Skip to main content

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 trustees to wrap up 2021

      by Aaron Mills

      The Central Michigan University Board of Trustees will consider approval of more than 1,300 fall graduates when it meets in formal session Thursday starting at 10 a.m.

      During its last meeting of 2021, the trustees will receive an update on the master capital plan from Nick Long, vice president for finance and administrative services, and Jonathan Webb, associate vice president for facilities management. In addition, they will consider approval of $5.7 million in deferred maintenance projects for fiscal year 2022-23. Projects include architectural repairs, civil works, electrical infrastructure and building mechanical infrastructural repairs.

      The board's formal meeting agenda also includes an update on the three-year assessment review of President Bob Davies and the election of Board of Trustees officers for 2022.

      The formal session will be available via livestream to the university community and the general public via this link. 

      In addition, the following committee meetings may be accessed virtually Wednesday via this link. Along with reviewing several items that will be on the formal agenda, committee highlights include:

      • Academic and Student Affairs – 2-3:30 p.m. — Student Government Association President Kate King will briefly update trustees on SGA's fall semester efforts. In addition, trustees will be joined by Tom Masterson, dean of The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions, and George Kikano, dean of the College of Medicine, and focus on the current status of each college, including collaboration between the two colleges, as well as future vision and plans for expansion or growth.
      • Finance and Facilities – 3:45-4:15 p.m. — Vice President Long will provide an update on the fiscal year 2022 budget.
      • Trustees-Faculty Liaison – 4:30-6 p.m. — Information on the data science major and nine associated minors will be presented by Carl Lee, chairperson of the Department of Statistics, Actuarial and Data Sciences, and Dimitrios Zikos, director of the Health Administration Division in The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions. Liaison committee members also will discuss diversity, equity and inclusion within the faculty ranks.

      Agendas for the December meetings and a schedule of committee meetings are available on the Board of Trustees website.

      In accordance with the Board of Trustees bylaws, public comment will be allowed for Thursday's formal session by submitting a request online. Comments may be provided in advance to be read at the meeting or arrangements made to deliver them in person for this meeting.

      Questions?