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.

2025 NVC Competition Live Stream

2025 NVC Awards Live Stream

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.

A student standing with a faculty member holding big winning checks from the New Venture Challenge 2024.

Start up

Build up your venture idea.

Learn more

A student smiling and standing in front of his venture display at the 2024 New Venture Challenge.

Family business

Explore the Alternative Entrepreneurial Pathways category at NVC.

Learn more

A close-up of the Prusa i3 MK3 printer in the entrepreneurship makerspace, the IDEA Den in Grawn Hall 166.

Product and prototype design

Create and patent your ideas.

Learn more

Innovation

Explore your ideas and build your skills.

Learn more

Positive psychology and ‘The Hate U Give’

by Sanjay Gupta

Positive psychologist Daniel Lerner and best-selling author Angie Thomas will speak at Central Michigan University.

Angie Thomas, author of the No. 1 New York Times best-seller "The Hate U Give," which was adapted for the big screen in 2018, will visit Central Michigan University on April 8 as part of the annual CMU Speaker Series.

Also visiting campus is positive psychologist and New York University psychology professor Daniel Lerner, who will speak March 18.

The goal of the series is to encourage students to reflect on wellness, said Kyle Scherr, psychology faculty and member of the Speaker Series committee.

All Speaker Series events are free and open to the public.

Daniel Lerner

The positive psychologist will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 18, in Warriner Hall's Plachta Auditorium. He will discuss how attendees can achieve greatness through rediscovering their core strengths and finding meaning in their work.

As a psychology professor, Lerner studies the ways careers and commitments affect people and the best ways to thrive under pressure, avoid burnout and come out happy and successful. He integrates scientific data with his personal experiences as performance coach to top performers, including Fortunate 500 executives and Metropolitan Opera singers, to help his audience receive immediate results from his teachings.

Angie Thomas

Thomas will speak at 8 p.m. Monday, April 8, in Plachta Auditorium. She will discuss the culture, politics and movement that inspired her novel and will take questions afterward.

"The Hate U Give" explores the life of 16-year-old Starr Carter, whose life becomes uncertain after she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend. Described by "The Fault in Our Stars" author John Green as "a stunning, brilliant, gut-wrenching novel," it was released as a major motion picture in October 2018.