Each year, Boston College distributes a general graduation announcement to students' hometown newspapers. This general news release is submitted automatically—you don't need to request it—for every graduating senior shortly after Commencement, and includes the student's name, hometown, and undergraduate degree(s)/honors, as well as information about Commencement itself.

If you would like to submit a more detailed news release that includes personal information specific to the graduate (interests, awards, plans, etc.), you may find it helpful to follow the format below. Simply copy the template onto your own document or paste it into an e-mail message, insert information about the graduate in place of the notes within brackets or where indicated by asterisk, then send the finished release to the news desk of your local newspaper. (E-mail and postal addresses usually are available online via the 'Contact us' link on the paper's website.) You may also want to include a photo of the graduate; if you do so by mail, remember to write his or her name on the back of it. If you do so by e-mail, it is helpful to compress the photo; very large file attachments sometimes interfere with message delivery.

Hometown News Release 2012

CONTACT: [your name and telephone number or email address]

SPECIAL TO:  [name of your local newspaper]

RELEASE DATE: AFTER Monday, May 21, 2012

[CITY] RESIDENT [STUDENT NAME] GRADUATES FROM BOSTON COLLEGE

    CHESTNUT HILL, MA (Monday, May 21, 2012) -- [Student's name], [select one: son/daughter] of [names of parent(s)/guardian(s)] of [city], was awarded a [cite degree received*] at the 136th Commencement of Boston College on Monday, May 21. Approximately 4,400 students received undergraduate and graduate degrees.

    The 2012 Commencement speaker was Robert W. Woodruff, an award-winning journalist for ABC News who was nearly killed by a roadside bomb while reporting on U.S. and Iraqi security forces in 2006. Just 13 months later, he returned to ABC News with an hour-long, primetime documentary that chronicled his traumatic brain injury, his painstaking recovery, and the plight of thousands of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with similar injuries. He and his wife, Lee, later co-wrote the best-selling memoir In an Instant, and established the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation for Traumatic Brain Injury. Woodruff received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the ceremonies.

    Boston College also presented honorary degrees to four other distinguished individuals: Joseph A. Appleyard, S.J., a 1953 alumnus, former vice president for University Mission and Ministry at BC and now socious (executive assistant) for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus (Doctor of Humane Letters); William V. "Bill" Campbell, chairman of Intuit Inc. and a former BC football assistant coach (Doctor of Business Administration); Navyn A. Salem, a 1994 BC graduate and founder of Edesia, a nonprofit that manufactures food for treating and preventing malnutrition (Doctor of Social Science); and Liz Walker, an award-winning TV news anchor and ordained minister now working in international education and women's issues (Doctor of Humane Letters).
The Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., 25th president of Boston College, presented the degrees to the graduates.

    [Student's name] is a graduate of [name/city of high school]. At Boston College, [cite here any academic honors, memberships in clubs, athletics activities, et. al. **]

    Boston College was founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus—the first institution of higher education in the city of Boston. Today, it is one of the foremost universities in the nation, with a coeducational enrollment of approximately 14,600 undergraduate and graduate students drawn from all 50 states and more than 80 countries. It also is one of the nation's most selective universities, with more than 34,000 applications for its 2,270-member freshman class received this year. Its faculty of eminent scholars is dedicated to teaching, both at the undergraduate level and in its nationally noted graduate programs in education, law, management, nursing, social work and theology and ministry. Though it has grown in size, stature and diversity, Boston College remains focused on its founding Jesuit mission to offer students a transforming educational experience: to help them develop both their intellect and their character, and to encourage them to lead lives of faith, integrity and service to others.

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* If the degree is awarded with honors (cum laude, etc.) include that information here.
**If the graduate's plans are known, a new paragraph including that information could be added after the activities list.