This page provides an outline for how to build a Merit achievement about students who were nominated for Homecoming awards. 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*
*= 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 2026 Homecoming Court Achievement Summary: Ten Merit University seniors were named members of the MU Homecoming Court in 2026. Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski were crowned this year's Queen and King during halftime of the Homecoming football game. Held on campus Sept. 24-26, MU's 2026 Homecoming Weekend offered a wide variety of events and gatherings, including class reunions, tours of campus, art exhibits and athletic contests. |
Individual Story
Your Merit achievement will create personalized online stories for each of your students. Throughout this story you will insert placeholders for the data from your spreadsheet. These placeholders are in [BRACKETS] in the text below.
This version of your story can also be sent to newspapers interested in just one student. Merit will automatically turn it into an individual press release for you and add your saved boilerplate.
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Headline: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] Named to Merit University Homecoming Court Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], a senior at Merit University, was one of ten Badgers named to the MU Homecoming Court for 2026. [LAST NAME] is majoring in [MAJOR] at Merit University. Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski were crowned this year's Queen and King during halftime of the Homecoming football game. Held on campus Sept. 24-26, MU's 2026 Homecoming Weekend offered a wide variety of events and gatherings, including class reunions, tours of campus, art exhibits and athletic contests. |
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 Named Merit University Homecoming Royalty Opening: Ten Merit University seniors were named members of the MU Homecoming Court in 2026. The following Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN]. Closing: Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski were crowned this year's Queen and King during halftime of the Homecoming football game. Held on campus Sept. 24-26, MU's 2026 Homecoming Weekend offered a wide variety of events and gatherings, including class reunions, tours of campus, art exhibits and athletic contests. |
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 thestep by step tutorial here.