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=<big>CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITYCentral Michigan University: WE DO ENTREPRENEURSHIPEntrepreneurship</big>=
=='''Campus Overview'''==
=='''Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship'''==
[[File:Central Michigan University.jpg|thumb|[https://www.cm-life.com/]|link=Special:FilePath/Central_Michigan_University.jpg]]
Central Michigan’s entrepreneurship and innovation team would not be anything without its students that help shape the college. At Central, students are given many opportunities to be able to get into their own creative flow. An example of promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship is the CMU sales challenge the CMU Sales Challenge which provides students an excellent way to showcase their abilities in marketing that they have been taught all year. The CMU Sales Challenge brings in what students have been practicing in the classroom, and brings forth their ideas to professionals that may be recruiting. This is also a great way for students to win scholarship money.
Another way for students to display their new talents is at the first inaugural CMU Hackathon, which was a collaboration between colleges over a 24 hour period. The event started with icebreakers and team building to help to create teams to tackle multiple different challenges. Throughout the time allotted for problem solving, students are able to remain within the building whether it be for working, eating, sleeping on provided cots, and brainstorming within their teams. Judges are brought in to judge the final exhibition to award students for their work and innovative ideas for these projects.
The Adobe Creative Jam was an event on campus to promote a new resource that is available to all students and staff. Creative and accessible technology was the focus of this event with a speaker from Adobe talking about a video editing app that was built to allow easy editing for anyone. Along with this, the Adobe Creative Lounge (located in the CMU Library) was introduced, where there are spaces to meet collaboratively and rent space like the sound booth. This space gives anyone that uses it access to professional equipment and help when using software like the Adobe Creative Cloud (available for all students and faculty).
InSciTE was a new program in Spring 2023. This is the integration of science technology and entrepreneurship. This program is a certificate program designed to give students real world skills that employers are looking for. This is for STEM majors. Students take one class every spring and each class focuses on certain thingstopics such as business analytics, entrepreneurship, and resumé building. The first inaugural cohort started in 2023 and will expect to be done with the program in Spring of 2026a new cohort is selected each year.
=='''Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship'''==
The innovation and entrepreneurial mindset does not end at the students, faculty are encouraged to pursue their own ventures as well. The Office of Research and Graduate Studies is a resource that can provide support in the way of learning, funding, and exhibition. Through this office, grants are available to support not only research but creative endeavors as well, helping to foster an environment of innovation. Along with this, there are spaces that are available to present ventures that faculty have spearheaded. One of these is the Baber Room within the library that is used as an exhibition space, giving access to creative endeavors created by all disciplines. This space not only allows for faculty to promote their work but also to reach students that might have an interest in furthering their academics through possible mentors.
The Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship (IBIE) is funding a Faculty Fellows program wherein professors from across the university receive funding for their research in exchange for their ideas and help with entrepreneurship.
Groups within CMU are beginning to pop up as well bring together different colleges in the hopes of collaboration and innovation. One group that is prevalent in innovation and entrepreneurship focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and the maker ecosystem within CMU as a university, stressing the need to work between colleges to allow for better access to resources. These groups allow for the conversations to start about how to create environments that will foster connection and creativity, two key items when developing ideas and working towards better design thinking principles.
