This page provides an outline for how to build a Merit achievement about students who earned a variety of awards at an end-of-year banquet. In order to personalize the achievement for your students you will need to prepare a spreadsheet of student data to use as placeholders throughout the achievement. Here are the placeholders used in this story:
- FIRST NAME*
- LAST NAME*
- HOMETOWN*
- ZIP CODE*
- EMAIL ADDRESS*
- AWARD - The name the award the student earned (eg. the John Smith Award for Awesomeness)
- AWARD DESCRIPTION - A brief description of the award (eg. "the most awesome student in the graduating class")
*= Data required by Merit
Achievement Title & Summary
Your achievement title and summary will be used for the online version of your story and shared across social media. They will also appear on your school's Merit page.
Your summary should act as a comprehensive overview of the achievement. After your summary, readers will see a list of students who are part of the story.
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Achievement Title: Merit University Celebrates Student Success at the 2026 Annual Honors Awards & Prizes Banquet Achievement Summary: Merit University hosts an Annual Honors Awards & Prize Banquet to celebrate student success on and off campus. This annual event celebrates and honors students who honor our history, invest in themselves today and work towards building a powerful tomorrow. |
Individual Story
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Headline: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] Honored by Merit University Body: Congratulations to [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], for being honored by Merit University at its 2026 Annual Honors Awards & Prizes banquet. [LAST NAME] earned the [AWARD] given to [AWARD DESCRIPTION]. Again, congratulations to [LAST NAME] on their success and continued growth at Merit University. |
Note: The spreadsheet used in this sample story includes placeholders for the name the award the student earned (eg. the John Smith Award for Awesomeness) and a brief description of the award (eg. "the most awesome student in the graduating class").
Group Press Release
This is the version of your press release that will be sent to newspapers interested in multiple students from your spreadsheet. It's a local story that will include a list of only the students from a paper's coverage area.
Your group press release will have an opening, repeating and closing section. The opening and repeating sections will be the same for every newspaper. The repeating section will contain all of your placeholders and will be the only part of the press release that varies from paper to paper. Use the last sentence of your opening to introduce your list of students.
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Headline: Local Students Honored by Merit University Opening: Merit University hosts an Annual Honors Awards & Prize Banquetto celebrate student success on and off campus. This annual event celebrates and honors students who honor our history, invest in themselves today and work towards building a powerful tomorrow. Congratulations to the following local student for being honored: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], earned the [AWARD] given to [AWARD DESCRIPTION]. Closing: Theses students embody the Merit University Mission and we couldn't be happier to honor their success during last weeks awards banquet. |
Note: Merit will automatically add your saved boilerplate to the closing section of your group press release.
Add Images and Publish
Achievements are at their best with images included. If possible, include a photo with your story. Get a picture of the achievement in action or a group shot of the students involved. If you're unable to include a photo, instead consider using a school or department logo. The image(s) you choose will appear on your online stories and also go to media recipients.
Use this template as inspiration to publish your next achievement. Log into your Merit account here. If you’re looking for more details on how to build this template into the Merit achievement workflow you can follow the step by step tutorial here.
