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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. 

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.

      Threads Fashion: A change of clothing

      by Sanjay Gupta
      Student-run Threads Fashion exhibition will put down its runway in the CMU Biosciences Building atrium April 6.
      MODEL AND DESIGNER Lowell senior Kathryn Montgomery’s look is inspired by architectural lines.
      Art meets science at this year's Threads Fashion celebration: The April 6 student-run fashion exhibition will put down its runway in the Biosciences Building atrium.

      That's not the only change for the event's 21st year at Central Michigan University.

      "Our theme is 'Threads Fashion ID' — for identity," said Ian R. Mull, fashion merchandising and design faculty member and the event's faculty advisor.

      That means embracing people however they may identify, celebrating them as they are and challenging designers to approach fashion differently.

      "Beauty is not so standardized anymore," Mull said. "We're taking a holistic view of body positivity."

      There's plenty more worth knowing about Threads. Here's a quick list:

      • The event draws fashion employers looking to hire. Mull said Meijer, Wolverine Worldwide, Kohl's, Carhartt, Glik's and Torrid will send representatives this year. CMU fashion alum Paige Zubok, who works for menswear designer 2(X)IST in New York City, flew in to be a Threads judge.
      • About 120 models will show the work of nearly 25 designers. All are CMU students.
      • Twenty-eight students in Mull's Fashion Show Production course produce almost every aspect of the event. The VIP reception is produced in collaboration with Sue Bowlby's Interior Design course and Jeffrey Fisher's Food and Nutrition course.
      • Three student producers — Chloe White, Cecilia Alfaro and Alivia Ferguson — started planning last April.
      • Winners of the Ultimate Cotton Influencer Instagram challenge will be presented at Threads Fashion this year.
      • Threads is reaching out to past participants for garments from past shows to archive in the new Threads Fashion Collective.

      Join the fashionable

       

      The Threads Fashion show begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 6, in the CMU Biosciences Building. Doors open at 5 p.m. General admission tickets are $14 at Ticket Central.

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