This page provides an outline for how to build a Merit achievement about student athletes earning awards. 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*
- TEAM - The team the student athlete is part of (eg. Men's Bowling)
- AWARD - The award the student earned (eg. Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken Award)
- AWARD DESCRIPTION - A stand-alone sentence describing the award (eg. The Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken Award is given to the bowler with the highest average season score in Noble Athletic Conference)
*= 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: Fifty MU Student Athletes Earn Athletic Awards Achievement Summary: Twenty MU Student Athletes earned athletic awards at Merit University's Annual Athletics Awards Reception on May 4. More than 300 student athletes, coaches and staff attended the event. |
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] Receives Athletic Award at Merit University Body: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], was among 20 Merit University student athletes who earned athletic awards at MU's Annual Athletics Awards Reception on May 4. [LAST NAME], a member of MU's [TEAM] team received the [AWARD]. [AWARD DESCRIPTION] More than 300 student athletes, coaches and staff attended the event. |
Note: The spreadsheet used in this sample story includes placeholders for the team the student athlete is part of (eg. Field Hockey, Men's Tennis), and the award they earned (eg. Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken Award). It also includes a stand-alone sentence describing the award (eg. The Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken Award is given to the bowler with the highest average season score in Noble Athletic Conference)).
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 Receive Athletic Awards at Merit University Opening: The following local student athletes were among 20 Merit University students who earned awards at MU's Annual Athletics Awards Reception on May 4: Repeating: [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], of [HOMETOWN], a member of MU's [TEAM] team received the [AWARD]. [AWARD DESCRIPTION] Closing: More than 300 student athletes, coaches and staff attended the event. |
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.