Submitting Student Accomplishments through Merit

What is Merit?
Hudson Valley Community College uses Merit software to publicize student achievements and activities on campus – like earning an athletic achievement, being named to an academic honor society, making the dean's list or earning a scholarship. [View example]

It creates personalized stories about these accomplishments, publishes them online, and allows the college to send them to the students' hometown newspapers.

This allows students get credit for the good work they're doing on campus, and creates a positive online profile that helps with jobs, internships, and even job interviews and references after graduation. A student's Merit page will also follow them to their transfer college if that school uses the Merit software. [View example]

Why is Merit important for students?
Merit helps people who make decisions about internships, grad school, and jobs find the "good stuff" about students, and recognizes their accomplishments with official college "badges" that show that they're authentic.

A Merit profile creates a positive online identity for post-graduation success. Many companies now research applicants online, and some have rejected applicants based on what they found there. A student's Merit profile is a way for students to shine online.

Students who are featured by the college are informed of the announcement through their college email address and encouraged to share their accomplishments with family and friends through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This reinforces the positive accomplishment and reflects positively on the institution as a whole.

How can faculty and staff help?
Submit student accomplishments to Eric Bryant, assistant director of communications and marketing. Think about research presentations and publishing, departmental honor societies and awards, service learning initiatives, academic trips, scholarships, etc. The best Merit news releases include multiple students but Merit releases and badges can be created for singular student achievements.

To create a Merit announcement, we need at the student's full name, email address, program major, mailing address and the achievement for which they will be recognized. A brief description of that achievement is also helpful.

Questions? Contact Eric Bryant at e.bryant@hvcc.edu or (518) 629-8072.