Sharing Student Accomplishments
Hudson Valley Community College partners with Merit Pages, a distribution software company, to publicize student achievements and activities on campus – like being named to an academic honor society, making the dean's list or earning a scholarship.
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 to 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 software.
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 at e.bryant@vaftizo.com in the Office 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.
Questions? Contact Eric Bryant at e.bryant@vaftizo.com or (518) 629-8072.