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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.

      Protecting underwater resources

      by Sanjay Gupta
      Central Michigan University will host the Underwater Cultural Resources Public Access and Research Conference Feb. 25-27.

      A three-day conference hosted by Central Michigan University will examine public access to Michigan's underwater cultural resources and the research potential they hold.

      The Underwater Cultural Resources Public Access and Research Conference, held Feb. 25-27 at the Courtyard by Marriott Mount Pleasant at CMU, will highlight current research, engage constituents and stakeholders in discussing current issues fostering or inhibiting research, and develop an action plan that will direct the future study of these fragile resources while promoting public access, tourism and management of water-dependent use in coastal communities.

      Michigan has emerged as a leader in underwater cultural resources management with the addition of the first National Marine Sanctuary on the Great Lakes, which is co-managed by the state and federal governments. Although this has helped to better manage a finite group of underwater resources, it has also created new issues and potential partnerships that are unique to Michigan, which this conference will seek to further identify and solidify plans to address.

      Free and open to the public

      The conference is open to the public free of charge. Guests are welcome to attend one day, one presentation or the entire conference.

      Financial assistance for this project was provided, in part, by the Coastal Management Program, Water Resources Division, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy; under the National Coastal Zone Management Program; through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

      The conference is hosted by the CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

      Questions?