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Author: Danny Rubin
Dream Job Ep. 84: Rocket Launch Director
Join Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin, as he talks with Sean Mulligan, deputy executive director & COO, and Sidnee McGee, chief of education and intern development. Sean and Sidnee both work at Virginia Space & Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS).
In the conversation, Sean and Sidnee take us inside the world of a rocket launch facility and how they work with companies like SpaceX and Northrup Grumman.
Sidnee also discusses how to impress through an internship application (hint: cover letters still matter!)
Learn more about the MARS internship process here: https://www.vaspace.org/education
ASL provided.Join Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin, as he talks with Sean Mulligan, deputy executive director & …
Here are the Finalists for America’s Next Great Intern!
The Rubin team is excited to announce the 2025 finalists for our America’s Next Great Intern contest.
In the annual contest, students showcase employability skills that employers nationwide value in new hires.
Rubin, the leader in online resources for employability skills training, hosts the competition.
The contest is 100% free. All participating students receive a certificate of completion and a ready-made portfolio of their submitted contest materials. The first place winner (high school division) will meet virtually with Scott Kaufman-Ross, an executive with the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The free contest is open to middle school, high school and postsecondary students in any CTE or project-based (hands-on) class or program.
Students were asked to 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.
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.
“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. “We hope the contest shows that, yes, there are motivated young people coast to coast who will add value to any business or organization.”
Voting is now open! Visit rubineducation.com/vote to pick America’s Next Great Intern.
Here are the 2025 finalists!
- Kainat Ahmadzai, 10th Grade
Prince William County Schools (VA)
- Kris Basa, 12th Grade
Nacogdoches ISD (TX)
- Jordan Blair, 12th Grade
Anoka-Hennepin School District (MN)
- Ailey Bolson, 12th Grade
Oconomowoc Area School District (WI)
- Rakshana Damodaran, 9th Grade
Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)
- Da’moni Gosha, 10th Grade
Phenix County Schools (AL)
- Asher Hoffman, 11th Grade
Laguna Beach USD (CA)
- Shannon Jenkins, 12th Grade
Boone Community School District (IA)
- Anvith Narayana, 9th Grade
Wake County Public School System (NC)
- Jocelyn Osborne, 12th Grade
Botetourt County Public Schools (VA)
- David Sheffield, 12th Grade
Montgomery ISD (TX)
- Sofia Tovar, 12th Grade
Allen Village School (MO)
- Eliana Wehrle, 11th Grade
Clark County School District (NV)
See who made the cut!
Rubin-Trained GA CTAE Student Lands Job During Mock Interviews
Whether it’s a mock interview or an actual interview, opportunities can happen.
That proved true for a Dawson County Schools CTAE student. Dawson County incorporates Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills into its CTAE curriculum. Students use Emerge units for job interview prep, resumes, cover letters, email etiquette and more.
Dawson County Schools held a day when employers from the community visited the school to help students practice job interviews. One employer, who manages an insurance company, was so impressed with a particular student’s poise and maturity during the interview, that he hired her for an administrative position on the spot.
Mind you, the experience was a mock interview. There was no initial plan for job offers.
The student’s job interview performance speaks to the high-quality instruction students receive through Rubin Emerge.
Kristy Moore, the work-based learning coordinator in Dawson County, believes Emerge made the difference during the mock interview.
Rubin = Job offers.
Rubin Partners with EdTech Global to Expand National Sales
Rubin, the leader in online resources for employability skills training, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with EdTech Global, a premier provider of educational technology solutions. The collaboration aims to expand Rubin’s reach across the United States, providing CTE and other instructors with access to Rubin’s tools that allow students to write, speak and lead with confidence.
The partnership leverages EdTech Global’s extensive national sales network and digital distribution channels, ensuring Rubin’s best-in-class content reaches a broader audience.
“Rubin has proven itself as a high-quality curriculum provider to many of the nation’s largest school districts,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Now it’s time to broaden our reach and share Rubin products with more administrators across the country. We feel EdTech Global will be a key partner in that mission.”
Rubin school customers include Miami-Dade, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Fairfax County.
“Partnering with Rubin aligns perfectly with our mission to bring the best educational resources to learners nationwide,” said Thomas Snyder, Managing Director of EdTech Global. “Together, we will ensure that more school districts have the best-in-class tools for employability skills.”
The partnership is set to roll out nationwide immediately with expanded sales efforts and accessibility enhancements expected in the coming months.
To request more information on Rubin, CLICK HERE.
About EdTech Global: EdTech Global (www.edtechglobal.com) is a strategic sales and marketing partner dedicated to supporting EdTech organizations globally in expanding their reach and diversifying their revenue streams. As master distributors, EdTech Global utilizes its extensive international network to effectively manage the sales and marketing processes for its customers.
About Rubin: Rubin is the leading provider of online resources for employability skills training. Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS TV reporter and producer for NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the company draws on industry-best practices for communication skills and delivers those lessons to students in grades 5-12 and beyond. Popular Rubin topics include email/phone etiquette, networking, LinkedIn communication, resume and job interview prep, public speaking and customer service skills. Learn more at rubineducation.com.
Broadening distribution.
Rubin Enhances Accessibility Features for Emerge and Aspire Products
In both our Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration video platform, we added new accessibility features. Teacher now have:
- 7 different American voices for text-to-speech
- “Page mask” to highlight lines while darkening the rest of the page
- The ability to read aloud and highlight text on a PDF or Word doc
See screenshots below and then dive into Emerge or Aspire to try these exciting features!
Click the box highlighted in red to launch the accessibility features from any page.
The new page mask feature.
Click on the icon circled in red to launch the accessibility portal for PDFs and Word docs.
A look inside the accessibility portal for a Rubin PDF about email etiquette.Rubin is for all learners.
Rubin Partners with Miami Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District
Rubin Partners with Miami Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District
In the photo: Rubin founder Danny Rubin (left) stands with Miami-Dade students and their teacher Shnae Wallace. The students use Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum to help with email etiquette, job interview prep and more.
Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability skills, has partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to provide high school students with lessons that focus on college and career readiness.
Miami-Dade, one of the largest school divisions in the country, has a robust internship program that sends thousands of high school students into the South Florida business community each spring.
In the 23-24 academic year, Rubin products proved themselves as supplemental curriculum for the internship program. During the classroom portion of the internship program, 3,000 Miami-Dade students spent more than 250,000 minutes in Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum on topics like resume writing, email etiquette and job interview prep.
In the 25-26 academic year, Rubin has expanded further into Miami-Dade through career-based pathways like health science, business and agriculture. Rubin will also now provide its Aspire career exploration video platform and Propel email etiquette teaching tool.
All Rubin products integrate to Schoology, Miami-Dade’s learning management system, via LTI 1.3. That means students and teachers access Rubin content in Schoology seamlessly and without a traditional sign-in process.
“We are honored to work with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the nation’s leading school districts,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Already we have made an impact on several thousand students, and we’re excited at the chance to make a deeper impression in the school years to come.”
We reach South Florida.
Rubin Plays Key Role at Major Career Event for Northern Virginia Schools
The Rubin company played a pivotal role at a signature event for students and teachers in Northern Virginia, one of the most densely populated regions in the country.
The Instruction 2 Industry Career Readiness Event coupled with the inaugural Future Ready Conference enabled Rubin to be a sponsor and conduct a series of networking skills sessions to help students engage with employers. All the action took place in Fairfax County, Virginia on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
Rubin founder Danny Rubin led four, 20-minute workshops that taught students how to research a company’s website and generate a question based on a company news article. The lesson is drawn from Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum. The students could then walk up to the employer’s booth at the career event and show genuine curiosity by asking the question.
Outside of the workshops, we also engaged with many school divisions that use Rubin products: Fairfax County Public Schools, Prince William County Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools, Manassas Park City Schools and Alexandria City Public Schools.
It was our pleasure to be an event sponsor, teach students real-time networking skills and visit our clients “in real life” rather than through a Zoom window.
Here are a few photos from the day!
Rubin founder Danny Rubin leads a networking workshop with Northern Virginia high school students as part of the Future Ready Conference. 
Regina Morrone, CTE program manager for Family & Consumer Sciences in Fairfax County, holds a Rubin poster about email etiquette. Rubin provides our Emerge employability skills curriculum to all high schools in Fairfax County, the largest school system in Virginia. 
Alexandria (Virginia) CTE Specialist Sarah Black holds a Rubin poster at the Future Ready Conference in Fairfax County, Virginia. Alexandria uses the Rubin Emerge employability skills curriculum for all high school students. Sponsor and workshop presenter.
Rubin Delivers Emerge to Charter Schools Across Miami-Dade
Rubin, the leader in employability skills training, has now reached charter schools across Miami-Dade, the nation’s third largest school district.
Educators within 15+ charter schools now have access to Emerge, Rubin’s signature digital curriculum for employability skills that covers topics like email/phone etiquette, interview prep, interoffice communication, public speaking and more.
Rubin Director of Instruction Alexis Kruemcke (left) leads charter school educators in Miami-Dade through a training on the Emerge curriculum for employability skills. Rubin founder Danny Rubin (right) assists with the training. Rubin already works with Miami-Dade County Public Schools through the division’s career and technical education (CTE) department. Under the direction of Miami-Dade Curriculum Support Specialist Pam Lopez, Rubin now has a direct connection with students in charter schools across South Florida.
“We are honored to work with Miami-Dade educators to help their students learn critical employability and workplace readiness skills,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “Extending our resources to charter schools allows us to further the mission and make a deeper impact in one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.”
Extending our reach in South Florida.