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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VP for research, innovation chosen

by Sanjay Gupta

David Weindorf joins CMU from Texas Tech, where he has held numerous research and leadership roles.

Executive Vice President and Provost Mary C. Schutten has chosen David Weindorf of Texas Tech University to be Central Michigan University's vice president for research and innovation, effective July 1.

Since 2019, Weindorf has been associate vice president in the Office of Research and Innovation and BL Allen endowed chair of pedology (soil science) at Texas Tech, where he received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in soil science and soil management.

"Dr. Weindorf is an accomplished professor and published researcher in soil sciences and crop production management, in addition to being involved in many professional academic activities, community STEM education and other endeavors," Schutten said. "We are excited to welcome Dr. Weindorf to CMU."

Weindorf has held leadership research roles at Texas Tech since 2014, when he was named associate dean for research in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. He also is associate director of Texas Tech's STEM Center for Outreach, Research and Education.

"I am excited to be able to take a leadership role in helping to guide and grow CMU's already strong and accomplished research endeavors, from incoming freshmen on up," he said.

Weindorf brings a global perspective to his position:

In 2019, he was a visiting professor at the Universidade Federal de Lavras in Brazil and also received an honorable mention Global Vision Lifetime Achievement Award from the Office of International Affairs at Texas Tech.
In 2018, he served as a U.S. State Department/World Learning Fulbright specialist assigned to the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India. He also received a Fulbright scholar lecturing/research award in 2011, assigned to the Universitatea de Ştiinţe Agricole şi Medicină Veterinară in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
In 2017, he received the International Impact Award from Texas Tech's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
From 2017-19, North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, named him to a position as extraordinary professor.
In 2015, he was an invited speaker to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., and to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

Weindorf will succeed the current vice president of research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, David Ash. Ash joined CMU in October 2005 to chair the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Ash has served in his current role since 2015 and plans to retire in June.