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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.

      Writing coaches win with words

      by Sanjay Gupta
      Each semester, Central Michigan University sends 75-100 writing coaches into mid-Michigan elementary schools to work with teachers and students.

      "If something doesn't make sense, he helps us fix it." That's how 10-year-old Tanner White explains Central Michigan University student Tom McNeilly's role in his Mount Pleasant classroom.

      Tanner is a fifth grader in Jeanne Fidler's classroom at Fancher Elementary School, and McNeilly is a CMU elementary education major and one of 75-100 writing coaches CMU's English language and literature department sends into mid-Michigan elementary schools each semester to work with teachers and students.

      The arrangement is mutually beneficial: Tanner and his classmates become better writers, and McNeilly and his fellow coaches gain real-world experience in preparation for student teaching and educational careers.

      The writing coach program is part of English 315: Teaching Writing in Elementary and Middle Schools.

      English faculty member Amy Carpenter Ford coordinates clinical experiences for CMU's aspiring elementary and secondary teachers. In fall 2019, she and colleague Kristin Sovis placed 100 students in Clare, Shepherd, Alma and Mount Pleasant schools to work with students in grades K-5.

      "Teachers in the schools rave about the program, saying they couldn't reach so many students without our writing coaches," Ford said. "Students say this is the most memorable part of their teacher preparation so far, and they are learning a ton from it."

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