The Communications and Marketing Office rolled out the new Merit page over the summer. The website will track student achievements by awarding virtual badges accompanied with a brief description.
Students can earn awards for making the dean’s list, participating in sports or going on SST. Hannah Bartel, a 2013 graduate, designed the badges.
According to Brian Yoder Schlabach, the Campus News Bureau Coordinator, there are three main benefits of the merit page: it saves time for the Communications and Marketing Office, helps families show off the achievements of their students, and supplements résumés of graduates entering the workforce.
Schlabach explained that a lot of time used to be spent writing hometown releases. “For things like dean’s list, scholarships or SST, we would write up individual little news releases for each student and send them to each student’s hometown newspapers.”
The Comm. Mar. office began looking for a program that would streamline the process and decided on Merit, run by readMedia, Inc. With this service, hometown releases become automated. Said Schlabach, “In the past, because it was so time consuming we only submitted very few awards. . . . This is much faster and much easier and we can award a lot more.”
Merit pages are automatically set up for each student, he goes on to explain, but if a student wishes, they can “claim” their account and add more info to their profile. Students that do not personally access their page will still have a record of their time at Goshen College.
Students should expect to receive their first enrollment badge within the next week. Students who participated in summer programs, such as Maple Scholars, have already been awarded badges for their activities.
The Comm. Mar office hopes the Merit page will also draw in more prospective students.
You can visit the Merit page at Goshen.meritpages.com.
