
Start up
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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Sergey Soshnikov, Ph.D., joined CMU’s Public Health faculty at the beginning of the 23-24 school year after starting his teaching career in Russia and Uzbekistan. Initially receiving a medical degree, Soshnikov transitioned to Public Health by completing his Ph.D. in 2008 from the Russian Research Institute of Public Health. Since then, Soshnikov has served on various organizations such as agencies of the Ministry of Health, did contract work for the European Office of the World Health Organization, was a tenured professor and head of the international department at Moscow Medical University, and as a postdoc at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Soshnikov has been working at one of the world’s high-ranked Universities, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology as a researcher and professor, supervising postgraduate students and teaching them how to organize, plan, and conduct medical research. Soshnikov left Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, taking his expertise to Uzbekistan at Bukhara State Medical Institute.
Soshnikov will continue the research he has focused on for the last 8 years, the global burden of disease (GBD), at CMU. His main area of research is examining the economic loss due to disease in various countries and the link between risk factors and health, primarily in non-communicable diseases in Central Asia. Soshnikov, who has a strong background in public health, found a perfect match for his skills when a position opened in the Public Health program in the School of Health Sciences. Additionally, he joined a program that had highly experienced and skilled professionals from whom he could learn and grow.
Soshnikov was a Fulbright Scholar at CMU in 2011 and worked with Professor Carl Lee and the medical department to build mathematical models of diseases. Since his first experience at CMU, Soshnikov has kept in touch with his CMU friends and followed CMU news.
When Soshnikov joined CMU, he immediately felt at home. The community was welcoming, helpful, and supportive. He was amazed by the strong team of colleagues with whom he had the pleasure of working in a beautiful environment. For him, the university was more than just the buildings; it was the people. Soshnikov found what he was looking for in his career at CMU.
This story is brought to you by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.
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.