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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CMU Alumna and professor earns MAC accolade

by Jason Fielder

CMU Alumna Marybeth Minnis (BME '79), the Assistant Director of the School of Music and Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Central Michigan University, has been honored by the Mid-American Conference as CMU's winner of the Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success.

Minnis has been Principal Bassoonist of the Saginaw Bay Orchestra since 1985 and frequently performs with other area orchestras. An active chamber musician, she performs and tours with the Powers Woodwind Quintet.

Professor Minnis has performed and/or presented at several International Double Reed Society conferences, TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association), the Michigan Music Conference, regional CBDNA Conferences, and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago.

She received degrees from Central Michigan University (BME) and the University of Michigan (Masters in Bassoon Performance). Her teachers include Lewis Hugh Cooper and Robert Barris.

The Mid-American Conference Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success is given out to recognize the outstanding efforts of MAC faculty to support and develop students both inside and outside of the classroom.

This student-focused award is distinguishable from academic or research-based awards as it celebrates the commitment of the MAC to a holistic student experience and the creation of an environment that supports success in school and life.

Eligibility for this award is broad to identify a wide range of outstanding means by which faculty are significantly impacting students, and to create an opportunity to recognize the various ways that student success is supported within the MAC.

It is the hope of this award that the twelve nominees represent a diverse community that demonstrates support for student success throughout their entire collegiate experience.