This page provides an outline for how to build a Chancellor's List achievement in Merit. 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*
- MAJOR
*= 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.
|
Achievement Title: Merit University Announces Chancellor's Honor Roll for Spring 2026 Achievement Summary: Merit University is proud to announce its Spring 2026 Chancellor's List, recognizing students with superior academic performance in a semester. To be eligible for the Chancellor's List, students must earn at least nine credit hours and at least a 3.9 GPA. The spring semester Chancellor's List includes students at the Merit campuses in Albany, Saratoga, and online. |
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.
|
Headline: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] Named to Spring 2026 Merit University Chancellor’s Honor Roll Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], was named to Merit University’s Spring 2026 Chancellor’s Honor Roll. [LAST NAME], majoring in [MAJOR], was named to the Chancellor's Honor Roll, which is reserved for students who earn a semester GPA of 3.9 or higher. "The remarkable students achieving Chancellor's Honor Roll are among the best and brightest at Merit University. This is a well-deserved recognition," said Chancellor Matthew Collins. In order to be eligible for honor roll designation, a student must have completed at least nine graded hours and achieve at least a 3.9 GPA for the semester and may not be on academic probation during the semester. |
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.
|
Headline: Local Students Named to Merit University Spring 2026 Chancellor’s Honor Roll Opening: Merit University is proud to announce its Spring 2026 Chancellor's List, recognizing students with superior academic performance in a semester. The following local students were named to the Chancellor’s Honor Roll: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], a/an [MAJOR] major from [HOMETOWN]. Closing: "The remarkable students achieving Chancellor's Honor Roll are among the best and brightest at Merit University. This is a well-deserved recognition," said Chancellor Matthew Collins. In order to be eligible for honor roll designation, a student must have completed at least nine graded hours and achieve at least a 3.9 GPA for the semester and may not be on academic probation during the semester. |
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.