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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Teaching and Learning Awards honor 3

by Sanjay Gupta

CMU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences has announced the three recipients of its annual Excellence in Teaching and Learning Awards.

Central Michigan University's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences has announced the three recipients of its annual Excellence in Teaching and Learning Awards.

A committee led by Associate Dean Marcy Taylor and a representative from each department within the college selects recipients through nominations and letters of recommendation from students, faculty and alumni. Each winner receives $500 for professional development materials and activities.

History faculty member Brittany Fremion is the recipient of the Maroon Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award for regular faculty, and Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work faculty members Dusty Myers and Elizabeth Whitaker are the recipients of the Gold Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award for fixed-term faculty.

Brittany Fremion

mug-Whitaker_Elizabeth — Elizabeth Whitaker

Fremion's teaching expertise includes environmental, U.S., women's and oral histories. She has helped organize and direct the Michigan PBB Oral History Project and believes teaching is an important and unique form of activism.

Dusty Myers

Myers is known for his enthusiasm for the content he teaches; his detail-oriented preparation and organization skills; and his respect for students' voices, ideas and nonacademic lives. His teaching expertise includes cultural anthropology, cultures of Africa with a focus on development in Ghana, racism and discrimination, social justice in a global society, and intercultural dialogues.

Elizabeth Whitaker

Whitaker's teaching expertise includes quantitative analysis, research methods, family and society, and sociology of work. She is a dedicated teacher who says her first concern is the development of students into thoughtful and capable thinkers with the confidence and skills to contribute to their communities and be successful in their chosen pursuits.