Back to Main Menu

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.

      More fun when we play together

      by Sanjay Gupta
      With leadership training from CMU student mentors, high school teens are changing perceptions about people with disabilities.

      The athletes trading high fives and smack talk around the track wore the colors of nearly 100 different schools. They watched with intensity as their teammates moved on the field, keeping their fingers crossed for a shot at the state finals. They danced together in celebration after a great race and screamed encouragement to runners who fell behind.

      While it might sound like any other high school sporting event, a couple of things were different about the May 30 competition at Central Michigan University:

      What it means to be unified

      Unified Sports brings together students, with and without intellectual disabilities, to train and compete together in sports such as basketball, soccer, track and field, and more. Playing as a team lets participants learn about each other without stereotypes, preconceived notions or attitudes about people with different abilities.

       

      "This is the truest form of sport. It takes out a lot of what we think of as the negative parts of competition and embraces good sportsmanship and the spirit of friendly competition," said Dan Ekonen, senior director of program leadership at Special Olympics Michigan.

      "The magic that happens on the teams is hard to describe but impossible to miss when you see it for the first time."

      CMU students served as mentors and guides for the Unified Sports Leadership Launch.

      Leaders make a game plan

      A group of 35 CMU students from the Leadership Institute led the Oct. 26 Unified Sports Leadership Launch conference for more than 200 Michigan-area high school students. Training focused on diversity, inclusion and acceptance.

      "These students begin to see themselves as leaders for inclusion in their high school, and now they see they can continue that work in college. They find mentors and role models in the CMU students they meet," Ekonen said.

      Many of the participants returned home to start new programs in their schools or help out with existing programs. Some also became volunteers with their local chapters of Special Olympics, and still others are now members of the Unified Sports which helped to organize the Unified Sports Day at CMU.

      No matter how they get involved first — as a player, a coach, a volunteer or simply a cheerleader for social inclusion — it's a connection Ekonen believes they'll keep for life.

      "They become part of the program and then become part of the mission. They want to share their experience with others and become passionate advocates for acceptance and inclusion."

      CMU University Communications interns Sophie Bates and Daniel Square assisted with this story.

      Games that matter

      • Thousands of athletes, spectators, coaches and volunteers filled campus May 30-June 1 for the Special Olympics Michigan State Summer Games. See the Facebook gallery.
      • CMU students gain valuable career and life experience as Special Olympics interns.

      Events

      VIEW ALL EVENTS
      VIEW ALL EVENTS

       

      View our programming newsletter

      Entrepreneurship News

      Questions?

      Contact the team