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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Scholarships funding summer study abroad opportunities

by Sanjna Jassi

Three CMU students received the 2019 Benjamin A. Gillman Scholarship to help fund their summer study abroad opportunities.

Three CMU students have been awarded the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to help fund their 2019 summer study aboard programs.

Cara Thomas, an advertising major from Warren, Michigan, received $3,000 to help fund her advertising internship in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Her internship involves working with a local nonprofit organization on fundraising, health education and promotion.

Darius Washington, a psychology major from Chicago, also received $3,000. Washington is attending Chiang Mai University through Aug. 4, studying global health psychology and international organizational behavior.

D’Shyla Hodge, a psychology major from Flint, Michigan, received $2,500 to help fund her four-week program to South Africa as part of ENG/CGL 200: In the Footsteps of Nelson Mandela. The course took Hodge to many cities and provinces in South Africa such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

“The Gilman scholarship is extremely competitive, and it is an honor for our students to be chosen,” said Dianne De Salvo, director of study abroad. “Receiving this funding eases financial stress and allows students to focus on their experience abroad and continue to become globally engaged citizens.”

Created to enable students with limited financial means to study or intern abroad, the Gilman program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Pell Grant recipients qualify to apply for the scholarship.

The program has awarded more than 28,000 scholarships from than 100,000 applications since it began in 2001. This summer, 1,424 scholarships were awarded from 5,500 applications submitted.