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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.

      Animation professor takes home top award

      by Sanjna Jassi
      CMU animation faculty member Steve Leeper was honored at the 2019 Los Angeles Animation Festival for his direction of the film “Fire Flower."

      WRAP-LAAF_2019_FireFire Flower,” an animated short stop-motion film directed by Central Michigan University animation faculty member Steve Leeper, recently took home the award for Best Student Stop-motion Film at the 2019 Los Angeles Animation Festival.

      The initial one-minute story reel for “Fire Flower” was created in 2013 by Kayla Mitchell in Leeper’s storyboard class.

      The production team also consisted of Leeper as the director and producer and Curtis Wood as the computer graphics supervisor. Sound design help came from CMU School of Music faculty member Mark Cox and Kurt Roembke, Fort Wayne, Indiana, composer.

      “The experiment was to see what would happen if we gave the same kind of resources to a student production as I would making a short film through a small stop-motion studio,” Leeper said.

      Serving as the director, producer and much more for this project, Leeper said he is proud to share the film and make connections for future student productions.

      “We met with some of my former students and made new contacts in the animation industry that will certainly benefit our CMU animation graduates,” Leeper said.

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