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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.

      Mary Senter recognized for contributions to undergraduate sociology

      by Sarah Buckley

      The Teaching and Learning Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) has named Sociology faculty member Mary Scheuer Senter recipient of the 2022 Hans O. Mauksch Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Sociology.

      The award recognizes a colleague with a distinguished and demonstrated career of service to undergraduates in Sociology in program development, teaching innovation, leadership, and scholarship.

      As recipient of the award, Senter presented the Mauksch keynote address August 21 during the 2023 ASA annual meetings. Her talk, “The Pandemic Classroom and Supportive Relationships: An Antidote to Neo-liberalism in Higher Education?”, is based on surveys of faculty addressing the ways in which their pedagogy changed during the pandemic and on qualitative interviews with students exploring their views about and experiences working with supportive faculty.

      Senter suggests that a new pedagogy of care focused on connections, collaboration, and flexibility may be emerging in the post-pandemic academy. Her presentation will be published in an upcoming issue of the ASA’s Teaching Sociology.

      Questions?