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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Student reflects on Quebec

by Sanjay Gupta

Annika Cushnyr, a senior French and political science major, received the Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Accomplishments.

Central Michigan University senior Annika Cushnyr, a double major in French and political science from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has received the Provost's Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Accomplishments. She was nominated by Richard Rothaus, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Cushnyr will receive $250 and a certificate during the Student Research and Creative Endeavors Exhibition formal program, which begins at 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in the Park Library's Sarah and Daniel Opperman Auditorium. Following the ceremony, Cushnyr's research poster, "Representations of Quebecois Society and the Impact of 'The Color of Time' by Michelle Le Normand," will be on display in the poster exhibition from 2 to 4 p.m. in Finch Fieldhouse.

Cushnyr, who will graduate in May, has participated in study abroad programs at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi; Linnaeus University in Sweden; and Catholic University of the West in Angers, France.