Start up
Build up your venture idea.
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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.
History professor is a finalist for LA Times Book Prize
by
Sarah Buckley
History faculty
member Andrew Wehrman’s book The
Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution is
one of five finalists in the history category for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Wehrman will attend the awards
ceremony in Los Angeles April 21 and will appear with the other finalists at the LA Festival of Books.
Published in December
by Johns Hopkins University Press and the result of more than a decade of
research, Wehrman’s book offers a timely and fascinating account of the raucous
public demand for smallpox inoculation during the American Revolution and the
origin of vaccination in the United States. A key chapter in the book is George
Washington’s decision to inoculate the Continental Army, which came as a result
of this bottom-up pressure from colonists for access to inoculation.
The Contagion of Liberty has been
reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The Lancet, Nature,
and The American Journal of Public Health. It was also named one of
the best books on public health published in 2022 by Harvard Public
Health.
In Los Angeles, Wehrman
will attend the Book Prize ceremony at the historic Bovard Auditorium at the
University of Southern California. He will also participate in the L. A.
Festival of Books on Saturday, April 22, and will appear for a panel discussion
entitled “How Science Guides Us” hosted by Leslie Mullen, the writer and host
of NASA’s “On the Mission” podcast and alongside science author and
documentarian Dan Levitt.
“Being nominated for an LA Times Book Prize was a complete surprise and a true honor,” Wehrman said. “It’s not only of the most prestigious prizes for authors and historians, but it is also an award that tends to recognize scholars doing innovative work that connects the past to the present.”
Signature Programs
Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship
Explore special opportunities to learn new skills and travel the world.
Compete & Win
New Venture Challenge 2025
Present your venture and win BIG at the New Venture Challenge.
Build your skills
Workshops and events
Boost your entrepreneurial skills through our workshops, mentor meetups and pitch competitions.
Develop your ideas
IDEA Den
Learn about the entrepreneurship makerspace on campus in Grawn Hall.
Ready, Set, Pitch!
Make-A-Pitch 2024
Present a 2-minute pitch at the Make-A-Pitch Competition and you could win prizes and bragging rights!
Meet Mentors
Mentorship and support
Connect with mentors and faculty who are here to support the next generation of CMU entrepreneurs.
Support students
Make an impact
Are you a CMU alum looking to support CMU student entrepreneurs? Learn how you can support or donate to the Entrepreneurship Institute.
View our programming newsletter
Alumni give back to students through mentorship, real-world experiences
The Wakeling Gendron Entrepreneurial Scholars program wrapped its first cohort this academic year.
Students compete to win cash prizes at the New Venture Challenge
Pitched 40 ventures at NMV Challenge, Friday, April 19, CMU. Judges awarded $100,000 in cash prizes.
Wakeling Gendron Scholars make a life-changing trip to Texas
Wakeling and Gendron Scholars attended SXSW in Texas, meeting industry leaders and gaining entrepreneurial insights.
Business barriers lead CMU students to a new venture
Justin Ashman and Philip Mundt won Central Michigan University's New Venture Competition with their 3-D printing operation, Form Further.
