This page provides an outline for how to build a Merit achievement about students working internships. 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
- COMPANY - The name of the organization hosting the student intern (eg. Cyberdyne Systems)
- DESCRIPTION - A stand-alone sentence describing the organizations through which the student is interning or the student's role while there (eg. Cyberdyne Systems develops electronics and computing technology for the US military’s Skynet digital defense network.)
*= 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 Students Take On Summer Internships Achievement Summary: Merit University students are completing internships across a variety of areas such as engineering, marketing, sports management, accounting, human resources, and fashion. By participating in Merit University’s Internship Program students are gaining beneficial hands-on experience and developing skills in a wide range of work environments. |
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] Pursues Summer Internship Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], is completing an internship through Merit University during summer 2026. [LAST NAME] is majoring in [MAJOR] and working as an intern with [COMPANY]. [DESCRIPTION] Merit University’s internship program gives students valuable hands-on experience and skill development in a variety of professional environments. |
Note: The spreadsheet used in this sample story includes placeholders for the name of the organization hosting the student (eg. Cyberdyne Systems) and a stand-alone sentence describing the organization (eg. Cyberdyne Systems develops electronics and computing technology for the US military’s Skynet digital defense network.)
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 Merit University Students Take On Summer Internships Opening: The following local students are completing internships through Merit University during the summer of 2026: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], is majoring in [MAJOR] and working as an intern with [COMPANY]. [DESCRIPTION] Closing: Merit University students are completing internships across a variety of areas such as engineering, marketing, sports management, accounting, human resources, and fashion.
Merit University’s internship program gives students valuable hands-on experience and skill development in a variety of professional environments. |
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.