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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.

      CMU research probes fish link to virus

      by Sanjna Jassi
      Central Michigan University faculty are researching coronavirus outbreak link in China to fish.

      Two Central Michigan University faculty members are among researchers worldwide working to unravel mysteries around the novel coronavirus and COVID-19.

      Michael Conway and Peter Dijkstra are beginning research to see if the emergence of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, can be traced to fish sold in the city's open markets where the virus is believed to have first infected humans.

      Conway teaches microbiology in the College of Medicine, and Dijkstra teaches biology in the College of Science and Engineering.

      "This is an important project because we still don't know what species is involved in the disease transfer that led to human infection and the current pandemic," Conway said.

      He and Dijkstra are designing experiments involving fish and coronaviruses like those that cause SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

      That information could help the researchers expand the possible species that could harbor these types of viruses, which could help not only current efforts to track the virus but also efforts to prevent a future pandemic.

      While virtually in its initial stages, both researchers intend to involve their students in the hands-on research when they return to campus.

      "It is crucial to learn more about this virus, which is having such a dramatic impact on everyone's life," Dijkstra said, "and it's great that CMU can play a crucial role in the fight against it."

      "Being able to research something that is having such an impact on the world's population is exciting and humbling at the same time."

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