Not all students on campus come from Minnesota. So, when students get an A on their midterm or win a study abroad scholarship, their family and friends might not be able to celebrate until days later. Since 2007, Colin Mathews has been attempting to resolve issues such as these with his platform, MeritPages, a company that creates web pages for students to receive public recognition for their achievements.

According to their website, MeritPages “transforms [students’ achievements] into… individualized, customized stories about the people [who are] living them at [the students’] school, including students, faculty, and alumni, and then dynamically matches each story to relevant audiences…includ[ing] friends, family, the students themselves, high schools all over the world, local newspapers and media, and even elected officials.” This aims to be beneficial to students who are out-of-state and/or attend lesser-known colleges and universities.

However, some students, like first-year Danielle Franke, find no advantage in using this platform.

“I live… in total driving distance, about six hours [away],” Franke said. “But I would not use [MeritPages] because texting exists.”

Olivia Hjerleid worked for her local newspaper in 2017 that collaborated with an organization similar to MeritPages when she was in high school.

“I remember we would get a whole page of stuff that [college] students were doing from [the organization] to publish for that week. It was always a lot,” Hjerleid said.

Christine Weeks, a Communications Specialist at Hamline, is a huge advocate for MeritPages.

“The idea is that this will help students be loud and proud on their accomplishments, academic, athletic and civic, as well as any type of leadership [accomplishments] on campus,” Weeks said.

Weeks believes that it will also help to attract more media attention for Hamline, a school she considers rather “under the radar” despite its students’ outstanding accomplishments.

“[Hamline’s] media presence has to do with alumni achievements and obituaries, sports news, some faculty commentary… and events on campus. Student achievement is an untapped opportunity for us. It also helps students as they go into their careers,” Weeks said. “But the goal would be to amplify student achievement using [their] hometown newspapers and also social media.”

A main concern of MeritPages is finding fast and effective ways to chronicle students’ achievements in a neat, easy-to-read format. An example page for a student’s achievements, which can be viewed on their website, is very similar to that of a Facebook profile page, with the student’s picture and credentials neatly laid out.

“Some students already have a Linkedin page, but before they start doing that, this is a place to have verified accomplishments that happened during college,” Weeks said. “So, when [someone] graduates, [they] can put a link in their profile to [the student’s page]… But I want to emphasize that this is an entirely opt-in service. It’s not mandatory. It’s not going to happen automatically.”

Weeks plans to have Hamline’s MeritPages set up and successfully advertising student achievements by December of this year. She urges students to sign up using the Google form she will be sending out shortly in this week’s issue of Inside Hamline.

“The ‘big splash’ we’re going to start with is Dean’s List… and athletic success,” Weeks said. She encourages anyone with questions to visit her in her office, located in Old Main in room 311, or to send her an email at cweeks03@hamline.edu.