Back to Main Menu

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.

      Creative Writing Students Win Coveted Fellowship

      by Sarah Buckley

      Kristen Brennan and Sara Daniels, two students in the Central Michigan University Master of Arts in Creative Writing program, won Creative Fellowships from Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, an environmental education center located ten miles south of Hastings, MI. This is the first time since offering the Creative Fellowships that Pierce Cedar Creek Institute awarded them to two students from the same university.

      Pierce Cedar Creek Institute’s competitive Creative Fellowship program offers students an opportunity to spend five weeks at the institute, immersed in Michigan’s breathtaking natural environment. Fellows are given opportunities to work with mentors and be inspired by the beauty around them.

      Throughout late July and early August this year, Creative Fellows went on nature expeditions and midnight hikes, used star maps to find constellations, discussed the importance of environmental regulation, and worked one-on-one with other fellows to further their creative growth.

      During the workshop, each of the ten student fellows were divided into pairs—one visual artist working with one writer—to create a booklet containing both visual art and poetry.

      Kristen Brennan, wearing a pink hat, green shirt, and waterproof overalls, walks through a bog with other students.
      Kristen Brennan, wearing a pink hat, green shirt, and waterproof overalls, walks through a bog with other students.

       

      “Over the course of the Fellowship, I had the chance to hone my abilities as a writer, collaborate with other creatively minded people, and learn about the world through new perspectives,” Kristen Brennan said. “This is an experience that I will never forget.”

      “I am so grateful to walk away not only with a portfolio of poems I am proud of, but also a deepened sense of connection to Michigan’s landscapes and a community I now consider myself part of,” said Sara Daniels, who graduated and is now pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at Northern Michigan University.

      For more information, visit the institute’s Grant and Fellowship Programs website.

      Events

      VIEW ALL EVENTS
      VIEW ALL EVENTS

       

      View our programming newsletter

      Entrepreneurship News

      Questions?

      Contact the team