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.

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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.

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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.

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Innovation

Explore your ideas and build your skills.

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English students go to the root of the story

by Sarah Buckley

Conspiracy theories have long existed, but in today’s lightning-fast media environment, theories that might otherwise have languished or disappeared can now be elevated to the top of our national conversations and spread around the globe in a matter of minutes.

English professor Jeffrey Weinstock says it’s crucial for today’s news consumers to separate fact from fiction and has incorporated this effort into his English 201 course.

“In designing the project, I tried to think about what would benefit CMU students and the broader culture the most,” Weinstock said. “I’ve never been so proud of a batch of papers.”

Students examine and research historical and modern conspiracies. Topics include Holocaust denial, 9/11 conspiracies, anti-vax conspiracies, "birtherism," mass-shooting "crisis actors," flat earthers, and climate change denial.

Social Work major Samantha Souva researched Holocaust denial.

“The Holocaust was an extraordinarily complex and dark part of our world history. This could be why conspiracy theories were created about it,” Souva said.

Course texts taught her that conspiracies often emerge because they are ways of trying to make sense of complex events.

“Holocaust denial is a prime example of this,” Souva said. “The truth is so hard that is easier for people to say that this historical event never happened.”

Kinesiology major Kathlyn Irwin says it’s important to identify the credibility of the source of information.

“It is important to dig deeper than popular news sources,” Irwin said. “Peer-reviewed journals provide great information. I’ve learned to look at multiple reliable sources because there may be information on a topic that is mentioned in one source but not in another."