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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Griffin Forum hosts Baldly Bipartisan duo

by Sarah Buckley

Central Michigan University hosts John Sellek and Adrian Hemond, the bipartisan duo behind Baldly Bipartisan, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 22 in the Park Library's Sarah and Daniel Opperman Auditorium. They offer a bipartisan, insider analysis of what’s happening in Michigan politics and state government policy battles in a conversational, fun way.

John Sellek is Chief Strategist of Harbor Strategic, a bipartisan PR and public affairs firm based in the shadow of the Capitol Building. Using experiences gained working for speakers of the House, attorneys general, a governor and presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, John helps corporate and political clients navigate the intersection of policy, politics, and the media. He is a sought-after political analyst by the media and was voted by MIRS News subscribers as one of Lansing’s best public affairs professionals.

Adrian Hemond is the CEO of Grassroots Midwest. He founded the firm in 2013 after acquiring a broad range of experience and expertise in politics. A former political science instructor at Saginaw Valley State University, Hemond was Chief of Staff to the Michigan House Minority Leader in 2013 and served as a lobbyist with Governmental Consultant Services from 2007 to 2012. He is known as one of the most effective political strategists in Michigan.

Jason Griffin, Director of State Government Affairs at Hemlock Semiconductor, will moderate the forum. Griffin previously served as the Regional Manager of Government and Public Affairs for LafargeHolcim and on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Energy Intensive Advisory Workgroup to the Council on Climate Solutions. He is the grandson of Robert P. Griffin and Marjorie Griffin.

Andrea LaFontaine, CMU's Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government, organizes policy forums each year that address social, political-economic, environmental, and other current and important issues.

The Fall 2024 Griffin Forum is sponsored by the Robert and Marjorie Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government, the Philip A. Hart and William G. Milliken Endowed Speaker Series for Integrity in Politics, the School of Politics, Society, Justice and Public Service, and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.