A student standing and speaking in front of a large crowd in French Auditorium.

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.

Learn more

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.

Learn more

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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Setting the standard for transfer friendliness, graduation planning

by Sanjna Jassi

CMU’s launch of two innovative programs to streamline the transfer process and enable multi-semester registration earned recognition from the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Changing how a university does business is never easy — let alone during a pandemic. Despite this, Central Michigan University successfully launched two complex and innovative programs this spring to streamline the process of transferring to CMU and enable multi-semester registration.

The efforts earned CMU recognition from the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

MACRAO awarded CMU its Transfer Innovation Award for simplifying how credits are granted to those with an associate degree. A new policy approved in April allows those with an associate degree in arts or science to satisfy CMU's University Program requirements.

CMU is the first public four-year institution in Michigan to accept an associate degree to meet its University Program requirements. Since April, about 200 students with associate degrees or who have completed transfer agreements have been admitted to CMU.

"This recognizes the hard work and dedication it takes to earn an associate degree," said Bob Garcia, CMU's director of transfer outreach and community college relations. "What this allows students to do is get into classes focused on their major, with the University Program requirements completed."

MACRAO also awarded CMU its Outstanding Professional Team Award to the interdepartmental team that launched multi-semester registration.

CMU opened multi-semester registration March 26 — the culmination of four years of work by a team that standardized processes across the university. While team members planned for a trial run, they did not anticipate their rollout would come when the university transitioned to remote classes and work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"CMU prides itself on a student-first approach, and with multi-semester registration, we're helping students plan their schedule to graduate on time," said Amy Faber, associate registrar.

Other benefits of multi-semester registration include:

Moving an antiquated paper registration exception process online, eliminating the need for students to come to campus to be added to an instructor's class.
Access to nearly 5,000 electronic degree plans that map courses required to complete students' degrees. It's called MAP, for My Academic Plan, and all new freshmen and transfer students have one, making it easy to register for multiple semesters.
Enhanced search functionality to include general education characteristics and other keywords.

The MACRAO awards will be presented to recipients at the virtual annual MACRAO Conference Nov. 18-20.