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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.

      From the Battle of Lake Erie to the boom of the Motor City, Michigan’s history is rich with colorful characters and amazing events. That’s why history students and faculty at Central Michigan University are dedicated to preserving it with The Michigan Historical Review.

      The scholarly journal devoted to sharing the many facets of Michigan’s history is peer-reviewed, produced entirely at CMU and published twice a year.

      “It’s a showpiece for CMU,” said the Review’s editor, Lane Demas. “It’s a work of serious academic scholarship.”

      Now, the Review has become an opportunity for history graduate students to get hands-on experience working outside a classroom setting. Gillian Macdonald, a third-year Ph.D. student from Glasgow, Scotland, is the first to serve as a graduate assistant on the publication’s staff.

      Typically, history graduate students get most of their real-world experience as teaching assistants.

      “This is a special type of position,” Macdonald said. “It opened my eyes to what I can do with my history degree.”

      Macdonald’s position allows her to work with both The Michigan Historical Review and the Clarke Historical Library. She reads submissions, helps to select items for publication, and assists with editing and formatting. She said the experience has been challenging, but it has expanded her horizons in ways she hadn’t previously imagined.

      “I was thrown into the deep end,” she said “but I learned how to swim.”

      Source: Ari Harris

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