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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Saving the world with software

by Sanjay Gupta

Business information systems student Sarah Miller wins first place in the annual SAP Social Hero Viz-a-thon competition.

Sarah Miller is using software to uncover sustainability solutions. The junior and business information systems major from Livonia, Michigan, recently won first place in the annual SAP Social Hero Viz-a-thon competition.

The competition challenges participants to use SAP analytics software to gather data relevant to a United Nations sustainability goal. Participants use data to create charts and graphs and develop a blog post suggesting ways SAP could be used to achieve the goal.

SAP is an industry leader in enterprise resource planning software that integrates an organization's accounting, purchasing, production, human resources and other business functions. CMU and other universities use SAP to teach business processes.

Though familiar with SAP, Miller had no previous experience working specifically with SAP analytics software.

"I don't know if I'll work with SAP in my internship and future job, but the ability to quickly learn how to use a new platform will help me because of how quickly the tech industry changes," Miller said.

Miller's submission focused on the UN's health and well-being goal.

"I chose health and well-being because I feel like people should be able to grow old and watch their loved ones grow up," she said.

Miller collected data about life expectancy and gross domestic product in Singapore and found a correlation between the two. She used these findings to draft a blog post advising investment of money and technology.

Her submission suggests SAP make medical technology more readily available for hospitals and explains how investment positively impacts well-being. She said these actions will make countries wealthier and better suited to address medical issues, contributing to greater life expectancy.

Miller said faculty members Stephen Tracy, Vishal Shah and Paul Dunn provided essential guidance and support.

"I owe a lot of my success with this project to professors in the College of Business Administration. They held sessions outside of class to help me learn the software and improve my submission," Miller said.

Written by Anna Kendall, University Communications intern.