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 steps up Detroit outreach and engagement

by Sanjna Jassi

New strategy and new leadership will reinvigorate CMU’s commitment to the city of Detroit and the surrounding metro region.

New strategy and new leadership will reinvigorate Central Michigan University's commitment to the city of Detroit and the surrounding metro region.

A five-pillar strategic plan focuses on student recruitment, alumni engagement, business engagement, business development and community engagement in Michigan's largest city and metropolitan area.

Rhonda Welsh, CMU's first executive director of Detroit outreach, will drive the strategy.

"Rhonda's extensive experience will help us increase our footprint in the metro Detroit area so we can better engage alumni, foster business and community relationships, and strengthen recruitment efforts," said CMU President Bob Davies.

Welsh brings to CMU nearly 20 years of communications and community relations experience. She has served as a marketing and public relations consultant at Multi-Training Systems in Southfield, Michigan; alumni officer at Wayne State University's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts; and assistant director of public relations for the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

CMU's Detroit-area strategic efforts include:

Providing opportunities for current CMU students to engage with K-12 students in metro Detroit.
Stationing CMU's director of business development in Detroit, along with full-time admissions and alumni personnel.
Fostering relationships with businesses that have high CMU alumni employee numbers, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Quicken Loans, Ford, DTE Energy and Meridian Health.
Partnering with community organizations to increase civic contributions and volunteer opportunities.

CMU's Detroit office, in the heart of downtown at 777 Woodward Ave., offers career services, professional development events, prospective student and financial aid workshops, and alumni gatherings for young professionals in the region. Central also has suburban Detroit centers in Clinton Township, Dearborn, Southfield, Troy and Warren.

More than 46,000 CMU graduates live in the metro Detroit region of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. That's one-third of all CMU alumni in Michigan.

About 30% of current CMU on-campus students also hail from southeast Michigan.

"Every one of our students and alumni are valued, from the Upper Peninsula to Detroit and everywhere in between," Davies said. "Because CMU has such a broad reach, it is important our resources are accessible throughout the state. The Detroit outreach position will help us to connect and engage with more metro Detroit students and alumni than ever before."