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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.

      Great actions brighten summer

      by Sanjay Gupta
      The story of three young sisters regaining their hearing is just one among many personal stories to celebrate from CMU’s summer.

      Central Michigan University's academic year is a time of great accomplishments by faculty, staff and alumni.

      And so is the summertime.

      One of this summer's highlights came in June, when CMU's audiology department in the Carls Center for Clinical Care and Education activated the cochlear implants of three young sisters from Berrien Springs, Michigan.

      The family's joy over the girls regaining their hearing has been duplicated for at least 17 other children so far this year and more than 200 adults and children since 2007.

      It's one among many stories of excitement and achievement from the past few months. Here are a few more you might have missed.

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      René Shingles in hall of fame

      The chair of CMU's School of Rehabilitation and Medical Sciences became the first African-American woman to be inducted into the National Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame.

      Her path to being an athletic trainer started with her case of shin splints as a high school cheerleader in La Grange, North Carolina, and "the rest is history."

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      Honoree goes beyond Extra Mile

      Volunteering around the world and founding the Extra Mile student volunteer service group led to Terry McGlasson receiving an American Counseling Association humanitarian award.

      The counseling and special education faculty member has helped with an anti-suicide initiative in India; disaster relief after East Coast hurricanes; and service in Appalachia, Montana's Blackfeet Nation, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Cuba and more.

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      Beating poverty with business

      mug-Pisani

      International business faculty member Mike Pisani received a Fulbright Scholar award to research how small businesses can solve poverty in some of the world's poorest nations.

      Pisani's Fulbright research in Nicaragua will focus on small stores that are primarily owned by women and operated from the home.

       

       

       

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      Comeback for Coach Kramer

      CMU football coaching legend Roy Kramer will lead CMU's 2018 homecoming celebration Oct. 6 as grand marshal.

      Kramer served as head coach from 1967-77. In 1974, the CMU Chippewas won the NCAA Division II national championship, and Kramer was named Division II National Coach of the Year.

      He also is in the Marcy Weston Central Michigan Athletics Hall of Fame.

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      A grand slam for CMU giving

      Dave and Sue Keilitz pledged more than $750,000 to CMU's Fire Up for Excellence campaign.

      Dave Keilitz is a former CMU baseball player, coach and athletic director, and Sue Keilitz is a former CMU staff member. Their total giving to the university is now more than $1 million.

      Their most recent gift supports both the Keilitz Fund for Athletic Excellence and the Dave and Sue Keilitz Family CMU

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      Baseball Endowment.

      Getting back and giving back

      CMU alumni Mike and Pam Murray's gifts to the university's Fire Up for Excellence campaign total more than $500,000.

      The Murrays have been coming back to campus to volunteer for decades. Their planned gift will support football and the Chippewa Champions Alumni Center and will establish endowed awards in the College of Medicine and College of Business Administration.

      University Communications intern Juli Lancaster compiled this report.

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