WKCTC Merit Annual Report 2019

The Attention Our Students Deserve

2019

West Kentucky Community & Technical College

westkentucky.kctcs.edu • 270-554-9200 WKCTC, a proud member of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), is an equal educational and employment opportunity institution.

Recognizing and Encouraging Success West Kentucky Community and Technical College offers opportunities for our students - opportunities to excel in academics; opportunities to discover other cultures, opportunities to develop skills for the future. Students turn those opportunities into accomplishments and Merit allows WKCTC to promote these accomplishments – via social media, local media and on personalized merit pages. Students get attention and positive awareness for their achievements.

A student’s personalized Merit page is a showcase of their validated achievements at WKCTC, which they can share with family and friends in social networks to demonstrate the great work they are doing and the experiences you’re having at WKCTC. Merit also automatically creates a personal online profile for each student, which can be used for internship or employment referrals.

How Merit Works WKCTC faculty and staff members or organizations notify the Director of Public Relations of exceptional student achievement or news, and a list of those who have earned the accomplishment.

College officials then writes a brief article and award a “badge,” which is published on the student’s Merit profile. In many cases, the information is also sent to the student’s hometown newspaper.

See a student page at your right.

West Kentucky Community and Technical College piloted the Merit Pages program during the summer of 2014, and conducted a marketing campaign to promote it for the fall 2014. In less than four months, more than 1,000 students had claimed their Merit pages.

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Summary of Last Year’s Merit Results July 1, 2018 - May 8, 2019

ONLINE ACTIVITY

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY • 51 achievements awarded in 11 categories • 11,123 personalized student achievements • 778 social shares • 108,280 social media impressions • 7,635 emails sent to students and parents • 41 high schools received updates • 68 government representatives updated

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128% average engagement rate Open rate 77% by students Click through rate: 59% (higher than average) 49 achievements generated 24,973 page views LOCAL MEDIA ACTIVITY

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548 news stories sent to local media outlets 46 newspapers 628 postal codes across the US.

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Student Response to Merit Pages Sarah Ladd

Melanie P’Poole

“It is easy to link to it and give potential bosses a look at my past achievements rather than uploading a resume. It compiled all my achievements in one place and gave me and others a comprehensive idea of my skills.”

Melanie P’Poole said she liked that her Merit page helps her to keep up with personal information add to resumes.

Dylan Richards “Having a public Merit page for businesses and other colleges to see my experience is great. I like that I’m able to display many of my extracurricular activities and achievements made while in college.”

Gavin Posey “I appreciate having a Merit page because my family, friends, and peers can keep up with me. It’s also fun to see what other students are working on and accomplishing.

Merit allows me to showcase my hard work throughout time at WKCTC. I like that I am able to see what I accomplished while earning my degree.”

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“I like having all of my achievements and activities together in one place,” P’Poole.”

Brandon Gossett “Merit Pages) look great when searching for jobs & opportunities. It gives me a very professional representation.”

Charity Itiav-Gar “It showcases my credentials and it sets me up as a potential candidate for employment. It advertises my experiences and achievements.