This page provides an outline for how to build a Merit achievement about an athletic competition. 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*
- CLASSIFICATION - The student's year (eg. freshmen, senior)
- PLACE - The position the athlete finished in the competition (eg. first, third)
- STATISTICS - A summary of the athlete's performance at the event (19:32:50 in the 1,000m relay; or 4:26.36 in the 400m breaststroke).
*= 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 Men's Swim Team Wins All-Conference Meet Achievement Summary: Merit University Badgers headed to Syracuse this past weekend to compete against 10 rival universities in the 2026 Men's All Conference Swim Meet. The Badgers are off to a great start this season. Coach Matthew Collins shared his hopes for the team for the remained of the season. “The MU men have been getting better each meet and I am excited to see how far we have come as we creep closer to the number one spot.” To read more about Merit's men's swimming team and to see the meet schedule, visit the athletics website at meritpages.com. |
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] Places [PLACE] at the Men's All Conference Swim Meet Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], a [CLASSIFICATION] from [HOMETOWN], helped the Merit University Badgers gain a victory at the Men's All Conference Swim Meet. During the competition in Syracuse, [LAST NAME] finished [PLACE] and swam [STATISTICS]. Coach Matthew Collins shared his hopes for the team for the remained of the season. “The MU men have been getting better each meet and I am excited to see how far we have come as we creep closer to the number one spot.” To read more about Merit's men's swimming team and to see the meet schedule, visit the athletics website at meritpages.com. |
Note: The spreadsheet used in this sample story includes a placeholder for the position the athlete finished in the competition (eg. first or third) and their statistics at the event (19:32:50 in the 1,000m relay; or 4:26.36 in the 400m breaststroke).
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 Help Merit University Win Men's All Conference Swim Meet Opening: The following local students helped the Merit University Badgers gain a victory at the Men's All Conference Swim Meet: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], a [CLASSIFICATION] from [HOMETOWN], finished [PLACE] and swam [STATISTICS]. Closing: Coach Matthew Collins shared his hopes for the team for the remained of the season. “The MU men have been getting better each meet and I am excited to see how far we have come as we creep closer to the number one spot.” To read more about Merit's men's swimming team and to see the meet schedule, visit the athletics website at meritpages.com. |
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.