Alumnus talks about success and failure
0Written by Megan Stepp
The academic year was officially welcomed in Sept. 1 during the annual Opening Convocation. The University of Pikeville celebrated its 128th academic year at the Convocation. It also celebrated the welcoming of new incoming students and reminded graduating seniors of what is yet to come.
The Convocation address was delivered by UPIKE alumnus Justin Hall, who is the president of Bit Source. In Hall’s convocation address he explained the importance of not being afraid to fail.
“His speech contained a lot of emotion and was also motivating and captivating,” Jacob Willis, sophomore, said.
Hall attended Pikeville College on a baseball scholarship and majored in communications and art. After college, Hall worked in many different places and found himself unemployed and recovering from back surgery. During that time, he developed the first website for hillbillydays.com. This is where his passion for technology began to grow. He used his skills from the college to set out on this endeavor. Hall then moved to Lexington to begin work on websites and software.
Hall eventually came back to Pikeville to assist with teaching laid off coal miners how to code. He stressed how strongly he was committed to Bit Source’s initiative. Bit Source has also been recognized by Fortune Magazine and has been featured in publications such as Fast Company, Wired, Work the Future and many others. Hall was named one of the 100 most Creative in Business 2017 by Fast Company.