Listen to our insightful Dream Job conversation with Victoria Dietz, founder and CEO of Empower Charitable.
Victoria and her team partner with nonprofits to deliver strategic fundraising, capital campaign management and hands-on nonprofit training.
We also discuss the power of thoughtfulness to leave a lasting impression on clients and donors.
ASL provided.
Author: Danny Rubin
-
Dream Job Ep. 98: Fundraising Professional
Listen to our insightful Dream Job conversation with Victoria Dietz, founder and CEO of Empower Char…
-
Introducing Rubin Spark: On-Demand, Simulated Career Conversations
The world of career exploration will never be the same.
Introducing Spark, the latest creation from Rubin that allows students to hold simulated conversations across dozens of career pathways. We incorporated jobs in the National Career Clusters® Framework from Advance CTE to build a library of on-demand, AI-powered conversations that begin after a few clicks.
We are excited at the potential for Spark in the CTE community, workforce development and other audiences that connect learners with career opportunities.
Watch the video and then “Book a Demo” at the top of the page to experience Spark yourself!
The world of career exploration will never be the same. Introducing Spark, the latest creation from Rubin that allows students to hold simulated conversations across dozens of career pathways. We incorporated jobs in the National Career Clusters® Framework from Advance CTE to build a library of on-demand, AI-powered conversations that begin after a few clicks.…
-
Rubin Engages with Students, Teachers at Johnston County (NC) Career Day
A room full of employers waiting to meet with students at tables in a community college atrium.
That was the scene on Wednesday, February 18 in Johnston County, North Carolina for the annual JOCO WORKS PRO. The event allows students to practice interview skills through the help of dozens of local business professionals.
The Rubin team was on hand to provide networking advice to students and show support for Johnston County Public Schools, which incorporates Rubin products into CTE classes at the middle and high school levels.
Thank you for having us, JCPS! Below are highlights from the day.
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Irma Bode from Johnston County Public Schools and Danielle Kroeger from Johnston County Community College, the event host. Rubin Founder Danny Rubin shares networking advice with JCPS students before they sit for mock interviews. Prepping for mock interviews.
-
Dream Job Ep. 97: Healthcare, Data and AI
Listen to our fascinating Dream Job conversation with Dr. Michael P. Goldsmith, MD, associate professor of clinical anesthesiology and critical care at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Goldsmith is a leader in the use of AI to replicate the intuition of doctors and nurses. The goal is to develop deeper insights to treat complex and sick patients.
We also discuss the importance of “closed-loop communication” to make sure the message is received.
ASL provided.Listen to our fascinating Dream Job conversation with Dr. Michael P. Goldsmith, MD, associate profes…
-
Rubin Adds New “Human Skills” Interactive Assessments
The rise of AI creates change and opportunities.
For the Rubin team, AI means an increased importance on “human skills” like critical thinking and empathy, the attributes in people that AI can never replace.
That’s why our team has developed a series of interactive assessments that challenge a student’s ability to work on a team, manage people and demonstrate the high-level thinking that employers prize.
We believe these “human skills” assessments are the the next chapter in the work we do helping students write, speak and lead with confidence. Let’s use AI to challenge a student’s thought process and make them stronger communicators.
That’s the role Rubin can and will play in our AI era.
Using AI but staying in our lane.
-
Rubin Crosses the Pond, Showcases at Global Education Expo in London
Hello, world!
That was the theme on January 21 and 22 in London, England at BettUK, perhaps the largest edtech conference in the world.
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin made the journey to England to showcase our company’s products and develop connections internationally. We feel we achieved both goals and head back home with fresh conversations and opportunities to explore.
BettUK was held at ExCel London, a convention center the size of three football fields. Scores of vendors had booths to spotlight their products. Entire countries had booths as well to showcase companies from their territory. Yes, France, Spain, Italy and other nations had booths like any other company would.
Danny also made brief time to explore London and take in the culture.
The Virginia State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) Grant, managed by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), helped to make the London trip possible. Funded by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Export Virginia, the program provides financial support for exporting activities like trade missions, website globalization, and marketing.
Our special thanks to Elizabeth Di Costanzo from VEDP for the guidance through the grant process.
“We are grateful to Elizabeth and VEDP for the interest in our company and the financial support to exhibit at BettUK,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “It means a lot that our home state wants to help us export and find additional markets.”
As with any new venture, it takes time to see “what’s real” and “what sticks” after multiple days of conversation in a hectic exhibit hall. We hope that BettUK is the start of our journey abroad while we still develop our business in the United States.
Onward and upward!
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin at BettUk, one of the largest educational conferences in the world. Rubin Founder Danny Rubin presenting at BettUK in London. A pint of Guinness in a British pub! World: Meet Rubin. Rubin: Meet World.
-
Rubin Achieves SOC 2 Type II Compliance
On January 15, 2026, Rubin reached a major milestone by becoming SOC 2 Type II compliant.
SOC 2 Type II is a framework to manage customer data, ensuring controls meet criteria for security, integrity and privacy. We engaged in a thorough independent audit of our entire technical operation over the course of six months.
SOC 2 Type II verifies that our internal systems protect sensitive information about the teachers and students we serve.
School districts increasingly require vendors to have SOC 2 Type II compliance, and we are proud to now hold that designation.
Learn more about SOC 2 Type II here.
The highest degree of trust.
-
Rubin Team Kicks Off 2026 with 80-Person Live Training in Northern Virginia
Right as schools returned from winter break, the Rubin team jumped into a live training with 80 CTE teachers from across Frederick County (Virginia) Public Schools.
On Monday, January 5, Rubin Founder Danny Rubin and IT Support Specialist Noah Sandler guided dozens of Frederick County CTE teachers to connect our Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration videos with Google Classroom.
The teachers can now use our lessons for email/phone etiquette, interview/resume prep, exploration videos across 100+ careers and much more within Google Classroom and no one (teachers or students) needs to use a password to access the content.
Thank you to CTE Director George Bishop for making the day run smoothly!
Frederick County CTE teachers review Rubin lessons from inside their Google Classroom accounts. Frederick County CTE teachers participate in a face-to-face conversation activity that teaches students how to do “small talk.” Spreading Rubin district wide.
-
4th Annual America’s Next Great Intern Contest Open for Registration
The nation will soon discover its “Next Great Intern” through a free contest sponsored by Rubin, the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. This time, Rubin upped the stakes with a $1,000 scholarship as the top prize.
The fourth-annual America’s Next Great Intern contest highlights students who participate in career and technical education (CTE) or project-based (hands-on) classes and programs. All middle school, high school and post-secondary CTE students are eligible to participate.
The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest runs from February 2 to March 6, 2026. Educators can register their class or school here. A panel of judges (Rubin team members, industry professionals and staff from the Association for Career and Technical Education) will assess the students across three areas.
Students will submit examples of their work in the following categories:
- Email Etiquette: Demonstrate a professional-grade email based on fictional, work-related scenario.
- Research and Critical Thinking: Learn to develop sharp questions ahead of a fictitious internship interview.
- Ethical Dilemma: Provide a response to a tricky ethical situation you might face as an intern.
The instructions are 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.
Every student who participates in the contest will receive a certificate and e-portfolio of their submitted work.
“Employers often lament that students today don’t possess the ‘soft skills’ necessary to engage in an office setting or on the job site,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “We hope the contest shows that, yes, there are professional-grade 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 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 real-time email etiquette tool for Gmail called Propel.
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!”
$1,000 on the line!
-
Rubin Expands to Correctional Facilities, Adds 20 School Division Partners to Conclude 2025
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with the leadership team from Business Professionals of America (BPA) student group during the CareerTech VISION national conference in Nashville, TN in December 2025. Partnerships like the one withBPA helped Rubin grow in 2025. In a flurry of activity prior to the holiday break, Rubin has two exciting announcements that hope to set the new year on a proper course.
We are pleased to announce a formal partnership with MaxxContent, a leading provider of educational and self-improvement digital courses for students of all ages involved in the justice system, including jails, prisons, probation and re-entry.
While K-12 is our core audience today, we believe Rubin lessons for email/phone etiquette, resume writing, job interview prep and more can benefit people in spaces like corrections and adult education. MaxxContent already works with correctional institutions nationwide and can offer Rubin products to educators in those facilities.
MaxxContent delivers a secure learning management system (LMS) into correctional facilities, and Rubin lessons will be placed inside of that LMS. That’s a departure from our normal method of delivery with K-12 in which teachers and students log into the Rubin platform directly.
We hope to have Rubin lessons ready in the MaxxContent platform in the first quarter of 2026.
Back on the K-12 front, we have had a busy November and December. The Rubin team developed national partnerships with several student organizations, including Business Professionals of America, HOSA — Future Health Professionals, National Beta and the National Technical Honor Society.
We offer advisors free access to Rubin products and special pilot pricing to create accounts for student members. The pilot offer has led to new paid engagements at 20 school divisions over the past six weeks — a mix of public schools (Biloxi Public School District in Mississippi), private schools (Bethany Christian School in Louisiana), charter schools (Ridgeline Academy in Phoenix) and homeschools (Young Scholars Junior Beta Club in Georgia).
For comparison, Rubin typically adds 40 new school customers in a year.
The goal in 2025 was to develop and solidify national partnerships to drive greater visibility for Rubin products. We made strides in that direction and will keep pushing in 2026.
Word of the Year: Partnerships