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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Board approves Culinary Nutrition Center

by Sanjna Jassi

CMU’s new state-of-the-art Culinary Nutrition Laboratory will prepare students for careers in dietetics and nutrition services.

A new Culinary Nutrition Center will give Central Michigan University students a boost toward careers in nutrition and dietetics.

The Board of Trustees today authorized The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions to create the Allen Foundation Culinary Nutrition Center with a $1.15 million upgrade to facilities in Wightman Hall.

The project will modernize workstations, install audiovisual equipment, add commercial-style stoves and increase the facility’s capacity from 16 students to 24. A technology center will introduce students to state-of-the-art food service methods and equipment, such as accelerated ovens that blend microwave and convection cooking. CMU interior design students helped plan the space with sustainability in mind.

Donations so far, including $500,000 from the Allen Foundation in Midland, Michigan, cover more than $664,000 of the project cost. CMU has committed $100,000, bringing the total raised to over $764,000.

“We are finalizing plans for the space, including equipment and finishes, while continuing to work with corporate and industry partners to secure donations and grants,” said Jeffrey Fisher, faculty member in nutrition and dietetics. “The goal is to refresh the space and plan for the future, while recommitting ourselves to solving the nutritional challenges of today.”

The center is expected to open for classes in fall 2020.

Supporting stronger programs

Fisher said the high-tech center will help students better prepare for their professional exams and excel in their future careers.

They’ll work with the same multifunction equipment that food service industries use today, as well as learn the impact of cooking methods on nutrient retention and how proper cooking temperatures destroy foodborne pathogens.

The center also will support courses including an existing experimental foods course that incorporates chemistry and biotechnology; and Fuel Up to Fire Up, a program of coursework through which nutrition and dietetics students develop education for CMU athletes, coaches and staff on healthy eating.

Fisher sees opportunities for community partnerships, such as offering nutrition education programs for Mount Pleasant High School and White Pine Middle School in Saginaw Township.

“This center opens new possibilities,” Fisher said. “We’ll be able to consider programming that would be impossible in the current space.”

Fisher said the agencies that accredit CMU’s undergraduate dietetics program recommended updating the lab as part of increased academic rigor.

The agencies — the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics — also are stepping up standards for becoming a registered dietitian nutritionist, one career path for CMU students. Starting in 2024, a master’s degree will be required to take the registration exam.

CMU also offers a Master of Science degree in nutrition and dietetics.