The History of BC Live

Front: Michal Vydrzel. Back (left to right): Rashed Khan, Katarina Kubesova, Jennifer Prather, Edwin Kovalchuck.

In the spring of 2002, Rashed Khan, Edwin Kovalchuck, Katarina Kubesova, Jennifer Prather and Michal Vydrzel decided to start an independent news Web site for Berea College. At that time, there were only three Berea College student publications: the campus newspaper "The Pinnacle"; the campus literary magazine, "The Zephyr"; and the Berea College yearbook, "Chimes".

With a goal of building a site to report on events within 24 hours of an event's conclusion, this extraordinary group of students combined their expertise in databases, programming languages, web design, journalism, public relations, photography, leadership, marketing, and motivating others. Four months later, BC Live was no longer a concept, but a reality.

Deciding to run the site independently from the college and with no financial support, this group relied on themselves and volunteers to report the news. With a single digital camera, this group reported on 686 upcoming events, covered nearly 300 events, and shot more than 9,000 photographs. In addition, this team also built a message board site called BC Live Lounge. Quickly, BC Live gained an immense popularity. In total, the site was visited by more than 90,000 people and had more than 5 million hits.

BC Live received impressive praise and support from students, alumni, staff and faculty. Here are a few examples:

My name is Belinda Riddle and I am a graduate of Berea College. I live here in Berea and our family was a host family to two of the Danish Gymnasts that were here last week. I e-mailed them and told them about your site and they LOVED it! You do have a fantastic site and I wanted to commend you on the job you are doing. Keep up the good work and know that you are appreciated! Sincerely,

Belinda Riddle

BC Live provided a great example of what a few talented and determined students can do to enrich the culture of a whole College. BC Live is one of the first places I look to learn what is really happening...Cheers,

Dave Porter, Provost

I have been very impressed by the timeliness of BC Live and industriousness of the students responsible for maintaining the site. I think BC Live has helped Berea to begin thinking "outside the box" on how to provide current, newsworthy information. Thanks for what you are doing!"

Joe Bagnoli, Associate Provost

Hey Guys, I am studying abroad in Ghana and I am enjoying seeing the BC-Live on the internet. Its great to feel somewhat connected to Berea life over here.

Joel Johnson

I want to thank you all for the website and keeping the Berea College community informed. As the Women's Soccer Coach, I have enjoyed reading all the news you have reported. My wife, Adina, is a Berea College Alumni and we live in Lexington. Until BC Live we always talked about how we had missed another event on campus. Now we are able to attend and enjoy many more functions by just going to the source....BC Live! Keep up the great work!

Francis O'Hara, Berea College Women’s Soccer Coach