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  • New Record: Students Log 1.3 Million Minutes in Rubin Emerge in 23-24 Academic Year

    New Record: Students Log 1.3 Million Minutes in Rubin Emerge in 23-24 Academic Year

    Students nationwide spent 1.3 million minutes in Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills during the 23-24 academic year. As a comparison, students logged 375,000 minutes in the 22-23 academic year.

    Students in places like Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Fairfax County and more gained critical workplace readiness skills that employers and colleges want to see.

    Why the 4X increase in logged minutes?

    Our team works hard to bring on new school partners. Beyond that, we pore over the details to deliver our Moodle-based learning management system to school districts. We insist on single sign-on access when possible to eliminate the need for students to sign in with a traditional password or manually create an account.

    The ease of use allows students to visit Emerge with one click from their school’s LMS and engage right away with Emerge readings, videos, assignments and assessments for critical topics like email/phone etiquette, conversation skills, interview prep and more.

    Digging into the 1.3 million minutes, here are the most popular assignments students accessed:

    • Texting vs Emailing: 16,447 submissions
    • How to Compose a Subject Line: 12,877 submissions
    • How to Prepare Smart Interview Questions: 5,676 submissions
    • How to Set Your Own Voicemail: 3,996 submissions
    • How to Email an Instructor About a Poor Grade: 2,770 submissions

    “We focus every day on the student and teacher experience in Emerge,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “When we see logged minutes jump into the millions, it says that we make it easy for customers to use our product — and to want to keep coming back for more. We continue to work in summer 2024 at the user experience because the journey and task is never done.”

    Explore Emerge for yourself and then request a free trial!

     

    4X increase from previous year

  • Gracie Gustafson from Iowa’s Boone HS Takes 1st in America’s Next Great Intern Contest

    Gracie Gustafson from Iowa’s Boone HS Takes 1st in America’s Next Great Intern Contest

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Virginia Beach, VA (April 8, 2024) – Boone, Iowa’s own Gracie Gustafson is America’s Next Great Intern. The senior at Boone Community School District competed against nearly 200 hundred high school students nationwide and demonstrated top-tier communication skills essential to an internship.

    Gustafson wins a virtual job shadow with an executive from an in-demand field (one option is a music producer for Jay-Z and Beyonce). She will also receive national recognition throughout the CTE community and a banner for the school to display. Her teachers, Ms. Lindsey Hyman and Ms. Amy Bossard, receive a $250 cash bonus to support their classrooms.

    Second place: Sahasra Bangaru, 11th grade student from Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Teacher: Ms. Sandra Wheeler.

    Third place: Parisa Majumdar, 10th grade student from Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Teacher: Ms. Benicia Ledford.

    “Up and Coming” middle school winners:

    First place: Zabdiel Dewar, 8th grade student at William R. Davie Middle S.T.E.M. Academy in Halfiax, North Carolina. Teacher: Mr. Fredirick Lapitan.

    Second place:Errili Perez, 8th grade student at Aliamanu Middle School, Panther Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. Teacher: Ms. Cherie Teraoka.

    Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability and workplace readiness skills, hosted the competition.

    Demand for intern and job applicants with “soft skills” is a top priority across all industry sectors. According to a 2022 survey of employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 76% of respondents want to hire young people who can work on a team, 73% want ones with strong written communication skills and 58% seek new hires who can speak well.

    The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest ran throughout February 2024, which is National Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month. All middle school, high school and post-secondary CTE students were eligible.

    The instructions were drawn from Rubin’s Emerge curriculum, a broad library of online exercises for employability skills like email/phone etiquette, job interview prep, LinkedIn communication and more. Rubin provides Emerge to CTE programs nationwide.

    The students were assessed across five areas:

    1. Elevator Pitch: Video recording about the student’s background and interests/passions.
    2. Ethics and Leadership: Written response to a challenging ethical dilemma.
    3. Team Communication: Email to update a teacher or employer on the status of classwork or a project at an internship/job.
    4. Resilience & Determination: Written example of a time in which the student demonstrated resiliency.
    5. Job Interview Preparation: Written questions to show curiosity ahead of a mock interview conversation with either Nike, Disney or Marriott.

     

    “Employers often lament that students don’t possess the ‘soft skills’ necessary to engage in an office setting or on the job site,” says Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Once again, our contest shows that, yes, there are motivated young people coast to coast who will add value to any business or organization.”

    About Rubin:

    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides Emerge, a digital curriculum that teaches effective writing and speaking skills, to thousands of students in middle school, high school and higher education. Rubin also has a soft-skill notification tool for email writing called Propel and a career exploration video library called Aspire.

    Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide critical lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

    We have a winner!

  • In First Two Months, Rubin Propel Gives Email Etiquette Advice 30,000 Times

    In First Two Months, Rubin Propel Gives Email Etiquette Advice 30,000 Times

    In January 2024, we launched our Propel email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook.

    Immediately, the tool went to work helping students nationwide become more professional with their messages to teachers and employers.

    See how Propel works — 1 minute video!

    Quick stats:

     

    Number of school districts participating: 37

    Number of students who have Propel as an email extension: 936

    Number of emails written with the help of Propel: 5,449

    Number of Propel rules shared with the students: 30,019

    Let’s break down the data

     

    Propel guides a student to structure an email (ex: include a greeting and closing) and then analyzes the message to offer further suggestions for grammar and soft skills.

    Propel offers advice, but students must make the changes. No AI, no ChatGPT. Pure learning.

    Among the 30,019 times Propel offered advice:

    • Include a greeting (ex: Good morning): 3,357 times
    • Add a period at the end of the sentence: 2,415
    • Address the person with a proper title (ex: Ms. Smith): 2,351
    • Don’t write the email as one “blocky” paragraph: 544
    • Be sure to capitalize the first word of a sentence: 460
    • Remember to sign your name at the end: 397
    • Don’t use a lowercase “i” to describe yourself: 250

    What’s more, 99% of students who use Propel write a subject line as a cogent summary of the message. The #1 complaint our team hears from educators about student emails is that students write the entire email in the subject line.

    Propel has solved the subject line problem.

    “The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much,” said Shelley Roberts, a teacher in Johnston County, North Carolina. “It is disappointing that many students have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. Propel reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students love the easy, ‘fill in the blank’ process.”

    The bigger picture

     

    Propel is an optional extension in a student’s email, which means the initial batch of pilot students choose to use Propel. They want the guidance.

    “When a student fixes a small mistake like not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, instantly the message becomes more professional,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “The student will then be taken more seriously in the business community, and opportunities can happen more quickly.”

    Rubin added: “In that way, Propel is a tool for equity and eliminating bias in the marketplace.”

    Click here to request a trial!

     

    Launch and scale.

  • Rubin Propel Transforms Email Writing for Johnston County MS and HS Students

    Rubin Propel Transforms Email Writing for Johnston County MS and HS Students

    Subject line: [blank]

    Email message: turned in

    That is an email composed by a 9th grader in Johnston County, North Carolina during the spring 2024 semester.

    The trend to write emails like text messages is not unique to Johnston County, of course. In our digital era, students nationwide often don’t understand how to draft a professionally-written email.

    That’s why Johnston County piloted Rubin’s new Propel email etiquette tool in the spring semester for middle and high school students.

    Propel is a teaching tool for Gmail and Outlook that guides a student to compose a high-quality email. Propel does not use AI, and the tool requires students to do all the writing and critical thinking.

    See a 1-minute demonstration of Propel here.

    Let’s return to the email written by the 9th grader:

    Subject line: [blank]

    Email message: turned in

    With the help of Propel, here’s what the email became:

    Subject line: Completed work

    Email message:

    Good afternoon, Mrs. Roberts.

    I hope you are doing well.

    I wanted to let you know that I have completed my interview and turned it in.

    Thank you,

    – Alyssa

    Now observe the growth among 6th graders too.

    Here’s an example of a 6th grade email beforePropel:

    Subject line: why i have 72 grade

    Email message: [blank]

    And here’s an email in which the student used Propel:

    Subject line: What I think the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland means

    Email message:

    Mrs. Woll,

    Good morning. This is Evy from second block.

    This is my answer for the journal prompt.

    I think the rabbit hole represents part of Alice’s personality, such as the unfocused part, or distracted or curious.

    Thank you for your time and effort for reading my answer for the journal prompt.

    – Evy

    Johnston County 9th grade teacher Shelley Roberts:

    “The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much! It is disappointing that many of them have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. This tool reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students loved how easy the ‘fill in the blank’ process was.”

    Go here to try Propel for your school district!

    Night and day difference.

  • Rubin Announces “Propel Partnership” with Nat’l Technical Honor Society

    Rubin Announces “Propel Partnership” with Nat’l Technical Honor Society

    Rubin, a leader in online resources for business communication skills, has partnered with the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS), a non-profit student organization that celebrates excellence in career & technical education (CTE).

    The partnership will provide NTHS chapters access to Propel, Rubin’s revolutionary email tool. Propel is an innovative product for Gmail/Outlook that teaches students how to write polished, professional emails. Propel promises no more student emails that look like casual text messages.

    “We are excited to partner with Rubin to offer our members access to their Propel email tool,” said NTHS Executive Director, Peyton Holland. “This partnership aligns strongly with our NTHS Core Four Objectives, particularly around career development and leadership development. This tool will help NTHS members sharpen and hone their communication skills as they prepare to transition into the workforce.”

    “The partnership with NTHS allows our team to impact student writing on a national level,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “So many college and career opportunities begin with an introductory email. If we can help NTHS students write great emails, then all kinds of doors will open.”

    With over one million members served in both secondary and postsecondary chapters across the country, NTHS seeks to empower students through career development, leadership, and service opportunities so they can develop the skills needed to build their careers and our global workforce.

    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability skills. Founded in 2017, Rubin teaches students how to write, speak and lead with confidence through a variety of online teaching tools. From live webinars with top professionals to hands-on curricula and an etiquette tool for Gmail/Outlook, teachers and students nationwide rely on Rubin to prepare for the world of work.

    The brightest deserve the best.

  • Powerful Data: With Propel, Students No Longer Write Entire Email in Subject Line

    Powerful Data: With Propel, Students No Longer Write Entire Email in Subject Line

    Raise your hand if you receive emails from students in which the entire message is in the subject line.

    …You can put your hands down now.

    Propel, Rubin’s revolutionary email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook, eliminates the poor habit and instead teaches students to write compact, professional subject lines.

    After six weeks of pilot programs across the country, students have used Propel to assist with emails 4,254 times.

    Of the 4,254 emails, only four had a subject line longer than eight words. Four.

    That means 99.9% of students who use Propel have learned to use the subject line as a summary and not the full conversation.

    Want to see your students stop treating emails like text messages? Install Propel to students’ email accounts.

    “We are thrilled with the early data on Propel in the classroom,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “The #1 complaint we hear from educators about communication is that students write the entire message in the subject line. Propel has solved the problem with the initial crop of pilot students, and we hope to roll out the tool to many more schools in the months to come.”

    email writing tool email etiquette Rubin Propel
    When students compose a new email, they are prompted with a pop-up screen that guides them to write all the part of an email, including a subject line with an example to follow.

    A subject line is more than a summary of the email. It is a first impression as a student communicates with teachers, employers and the broader community.

    A sloppy subject line could prevent the student from receiving a response. A professional subject line allows the student to open new doors and conversations.

    Propel, then, is a tool for equity and opportunity that all students deserve.

    Try Propel for yourself and see the impact.

    Problem? Solved.

  • Rubin Partners with School System in Tech Hot-Spot Mountain View, CA

    Rubin Partners with School System in Tech Hot-Spot Mountain View, CA

    Rubin has landed in Silicon Valley.

    No, the Virginia Beach-based company didn’t move its headquarters to the West Coast. The educational curriculum provider now works with teachers and students in Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District (MVLA).

    Mountain View is a hub for tech giants Google, LinkedIn, Intuit and Microsoft.

    MVLA now incorporates Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills like how to create a professional email address, shake hands in the business world and handle tricky ethical situations in the workplace.

    Emerge is a robust online library of 300+ instructional items to help students write, speak and lead with confidence. Rubin integrates Emerge to MVLA’s learning management system (Canvas) for single sign-on integration.

    In California, Rubin also works with school divisions in Irvine, Palm Springs, Coachella, Bakersfield and Lynwood outside of Los Angeles.

    “It means a great deal to have the trust of educators in Mountain View, a school system that produces students ready to tackle society’s toughest software challenges,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “As always, we hope to give students a foundation in soft skills to complement the technical training.”

    Educators, students rave about Rubin’s new Propel email etiquette tool

    Rubin’s Emerge curriculum got the business off the ground, but the company now has three products designed to help students with business communication skills.

    Aspire: Online library of 250+ career exploration videos

    Propel: Email etiquette teaching tool that works as a Chrome extension and Outlook Add-In

    Propel is turning heads in secondary schools as students nationwide struggle to write emails formally. Too often, the emails resemble text messages with lowercase letters, no punctuation and slang.

    Without AI tools like ChatGPT, Propel guides a student to draft a high-quality email, and in the process, show respect to adults. See a one-minute demonstration of Rubin Propel.

    email etiquette tool

    Rubin found that 92% of surveyed students who used Propel said they would use the tool for future email writing. Further, 100% surveyed teachers said they noticed an improvement in student email writing because of Propel.

    The Rubin team offers free pilots of Propel for school systems. You can request your pilot here.

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    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability or work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides three high-quality resources — Aspire, a career exploration video platform, Emerge, a communication skills curriculum and Propel, a real-time email etiquette training tool for Gmail and Outlook.

    Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide important lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”

    Landing in the world of Google.

  • You Won’t Believe How These HS Students Write Emails Thanks to Rubin Propel

    You Won’t Believe How These HS Students Write Emails Thanks to Rubin Propel

    High school students in teacher Shelley Roberts’s class in North Carolina have undergone a metamorphosis.

    An email metamorphosis, if you will.

    With the help of Propel, our groundbreaking email teaching tool, the 28 Johnston County students have learned to write high-quality messages instead of ones that resemble a casual text.

    To understand the dramatic leap, here is a before & after from one of Roberts’s students.

    James (11th grade)

     

    Email before Propel

    Subject line: [blank]

    Email message: can u pull me for CT

     

    The same email with the help of Propel (the “after”)

    Subject line: Comet Time

    Email message:

    Hello Mrs. Roberts,

    I wanted to ask you to pull me for Comet Time A on Thursday, November 8.

    I would like to make corrections on my quiz if I am still allowed to do so.

    Please let me know if it is a problem,

    – James, 1st block

     

    James’s “after” email might seem like it’s written by ChatGPT. But no, he composed the message on his own and wrote every word. Propel guided James to structure the email, use proper capitalization, include periods, remove slang (“u”) and more.

    Watch a Propel demonstration to see how the tool works in Gmail and Outlook.

    “Our initial pilot was extremely successful and had a positive impact on the email communication
    skills of students,” said Johnston County CTE Workforce Development Specialist Kathryn Farrior. “Before and after examples demonstrate a noticeable improvement in student’s email formatting, grammar and overall email etiquette.”

    Further, ninety percent of Roberts’s students said they would sometimes or always use Propel when writing
    emails.

    Try Propel for free in YOUR classroom. Click here to request access.

    Night and day difference

  • Students Log 1,000,000 Minutes All Time in Rubin Emerge

    Students Log 1,000,000 Minutes All Time in Rubin Emerge

    Students nationwide have spent 1,000,000 collective minutes in Emerge, our signature online curriculum that teaches in-demand employability topics like email/phone etiquette, networking and conversation skills.

    Emerge, which debuted in the 2020-2021 academic year, teaches valuable skills for college and career to students nationwide in grades 6-12 and higher education.

    Among the most popular assignments that comprise the 1,000,000 minutes:

    • How to learn the difference between texting and emailing
    • How to set your own voicemail
    • How to sign your name in cursive
    • How to take a quality headshot
    • How to email your instructor politely about a poor grade

    Emerge is a Netflix-style library of assignments, readings, videos and quizzes that integrates for single sign-on to the school’s learning management system (ex: Canvas, Schoology and Google Classroom).

    The lessons align with state standards across the country for workplace readiness, a critical set of life skills that prepares students for the world beyond graduation.

    In that way, Emerge has become a valued resource for school divisions big and small, from Fairfax County, the largest school system in Virginia, to Payette River Technical Academy in Emmett, Idaho.

    “Our goal is to give teachers high-quality resources to use in the classroom so we can’t always observe students using Emerge in real time,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “When we see the number 1,000,000, it’s a powerful reminder that, yes, Emerge shapes students every day into kind, professional young adults — and that’s a mission worth pursuing to reach 2,000,000 and beyond.”

    Schedule a free trial of our resources today!

    —-

    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability or work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides three high-quality resources — Aspire, a career exploration video platform, Emerge, a communication skills curriculum and Propel, a real-time email etiquette training tool for Gmail and Outlook.

    Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide important lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”

    Learning at scale

  • Rubin Holds Contracts with 3 Largest School Systems in VA, NC

    Rubin Holds Contracts with 3 Largest School Systems in VA, NC

    Rubin, the leader in online instruction for employability or work readiness skills, holds contracts with the three largest public school systems in Virginia and North Carolina.

    Virginia

    • Fairfax County Public Schools (Northern Virginia)
    • Prince William County Public Schools (Northern Virginia)
    • Loudoun County Public Schools (Northern Virginia)

     

    North Carolina

    • Wake County Public School System (Raleigh)
    • Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (Charlotte)
    • Guilford County Schools (Greensboro)

     

    The six school districts use a mix of Rubin’s Aspire career exploration video platform and Emerge communication skills curriculum. Depending on the district, the resources reach middle school students, high school students or both. The goal in these districts and the 125+ other school systems that use Rubin is to teach students how to write, speak and lead with confidence.

    On any given school day, a student in Prince William County or Wake County, for example, may learn life skills from Rubin Aspire or Emerge like how to write a professional email, shake hands, speak on the phone or communicate on a team.

    Across all Rubin customers, we deliver Aspire and Emerge via LTI Advantage into the school’s learning management system (LMS) like Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard or Moodle. We also provide a custom single sign-on experience with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams.

    In Virginia, North Carolina and states around the country, there is renewed emphasis on employability or “soft” skills. Employers in rural and urban communities routinely ask schools to teach students skills like customer service, face-to-face interactions and email writing.

    As school divisions then set out to find partners to provide such curricula, Rubin is there with high-quality instruction that guides students to learn and demonstrate effective communication techniques.

    “It’s a great responsibility to work with school divisions, especially ones in our home state of Virginia and next-door neighbor North Carolina,” said Rubin Founder Danny Rubin. “The world of work needs students ready with critical employability skills. We strive to be the premier resource nationwide to help students engage with poise and maturity.”

    Schedule a free trial of our resources today!

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    Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability or work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides three high-quality resources — Aspire, a career exploration video platform, Emerge, a communication skills curriculum and Propel, a real-time email etiquette training tool for Gmail and Outlook.

    Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide critical lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”

     

    Making an impact on both sides of the border.