This page provides an outline for how to build a white coat 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*
*= 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 Class of 2026 College of Medicine White Coat Ceremony Achievement Summary: Merit University welcomed 174 students in the Class of 2026. The first-year medicine students arrived on campus to begin the study of medicine. White coats are symbolic of the professionalism that is expected of medicine students during their professional school years and as physicians. During the White Coat Ceremonies, students received their white coats and pledged their commitments to their professions and the health of the patients they will serve. |
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] Welcomed to Merit University During White Coat Ceremony Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], entered the College of Medicine at Merit University as part of the Class of 2026 during a formal White Coat Ceremony. White coats are symbolic of the professionalism that is expected of medicine students during their professional school years and as physicians. During the White Coat Ceremonies, students received their white coats and pledged their commitments to their professions and the health of the patients they will serve. |
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 welcomed to Merit University during White Coat Ceremonies Opening: Merit University welcomed 174 new students through the Class of 2026 White Coat Ceremony, a special ceremony designed to mark a student's entrance into medical school. The following students received a white coat through Merit University: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN] Closing: White coats are symbolic of the professionalism that is expected of medicine students during their professional school years and as physicians. During the White Coat Ceremonies, students received their white coats and pledged their commitments to their professions and the health of the patients they will serve. |
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.