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.

Learn more

Innovation

Explore your ideas and build your skills.

Learn more

Taking cardiovascular wellness to heart

by Kelly Belcher

This year, nearly 40 students from the CMU College of Medicine are completing their month-long cardiovascular training at McLaren Bay Heart and Vascular, under the supervision of Daniel Lee, M.D. Dr. Lee has been practicing for over 20 years and teaching future physicians for five. As a community educator for the College, Dr. Lee provides a lecture on cardiopulmonary health to first-year students and then offers a cardiac rotation for third and fourth-year students.

This style of community-based medical education allows students to receive hands-on training and work with local doctors to assess patients and develop real-world treatment plans. Dr. Lee teaches his students, “when it comes to cardiology, the standard office visit is where we can make the biggest impact for the patient with the treatment of blood pressure and cholesterol [concerns].”

Under Dr Lee’s guidance, students learn the importance of taking a patient’s blood pressure the correct way and how to interpret the results. They are taught to get a comprehensive health history and look for risk factors that can contribute to blood pressure and cholesterol issues. When risks are identified, students work with Dr. Lee to propose treatment modifications, lifestyle changes and medications that can improve the patient’s well-being.

Dr. Lee instructs his students to “know the guidelines.” The American College of Cardiology guidelines are published every five to seven years. “It’s not speculation, the guidelines are based on good research and robust data. If you know your guidelines you know you’re treating patients quickly, efficiently and correctly.” For Dr. Lee, that’s the most important part. “I think the best stories are just making people feel better, literally lifesaving, that’s gratifying.”