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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!

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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.

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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.

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Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.

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Start up

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Family business

Explore the Alternative Entrepreneurial Pathways category at NVC.

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Product and prototype design

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Innovation

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Med student provides post-quake relief in Turkey

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A man hands out supplies to earthquake victims. — Aiman Almasnaah, a first year medical student, hands out supplies to earthquake victims in Turkey in March.

For a week in March, Aiman Almasnaah did what he hopes to spend the rest of his life doing - helping people in need.

The first-year Central Michigan University medical school student traveled to Turkey during spring break where he helped distribute disaster relief packages and medical kits to survivors of the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6.

It’s something he said he’d always wanted to do. Almasnaah plans to do it again after graduation, utilizing skills he’ll develop in medical school.

“A skill you can pick up here can make a huge difference there,” said Almasnaah, who moved to the United States from Yemen when he was 7.

Volunteers from around the world in Turkey made a huge difference in people’s lives, he said. The people who lived in the region where he assisted were grateful for their help. Almansnaah said he continued to get messages of thanks from them after he returned.

“That, for me, was so heartwarming,” he said.

Seeing the damage was hard for him, he said. He met one family that lost 10 people.

One of Almasnaah’s biggest takeaways was realizing that the region’s recovery could take decades. It wasn’t just something that ended quickly, he said.

While there, he heard that conditions in Syria were even worse, complicated by the long civil war fought there.

Almasnaah was inspired to help after finding a flyer for Mercy Relief. He said he hopes others find the inspiration to volunteer somewhere as well.

“People do need help,” he said. “Who’s going to do it?”