This page provides an outline for how to build a Merit achievement about students performing community service. 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 Students Organize Canned Food Drive to Benefit Albany Soup Kitchen Achievement Summary: Merit University Students in Action club organized a campus-wide canned food drive donating more than 1,000 cans to benefit the Albany Soup Kitchen. Thanks to the donations raised by the Students in Action club the Albany Soup Kitchen will fill their pantry for the upcoming season. The pantry stocks non-perishable items for the entire community to utilize. The pantry was established in 2001 to combat community food insecurity. |
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] Helps Organize Food Drive for the Albany Soup Kitchen Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME ], of [HOMETOWN], is a member of the Merit University campus organization Students in Action. [LAST NAME] and fellow MU students organized a campus-wide canned food drive donating more than 1,000 cans to benefit the Albany Soup Kitchen. Thanks to the donations raised by the Students in Action club the Albany Soup Kitchen will fill their pantry for the upcoming season. The pantry stocks non-perishable items for the entire community to utilize. The pantry was established in 2001 to combat community food insecurity. MU students leaders credit the University’s mission statement for emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community. To learn more on how you can support the Albany Soup Kitchen and Students in Action click here. |
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 Help Organize Food Drive for the Albany Soup Kitchen Opening: The Merit University Students in Action Club organized a campus-wide canned food drive donating more than 1,000 cans to benefit the Albany Soup Kitchen. The following local students participated in the event: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN] Closing: Thanks to the donations raised by the Students in Action club the Albany Soup Kitchen will fill their pantry for the upcoming season. The pantry stocks non-perishable items for the entire community to utilize. The pantry was established in 2001 to combat community food insecurity. MU students leaders credit the University’s mission statement for emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community. To learn more on how you can support the Albany Soup Kitchen and Students in Action click here. |
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.