Author: Danny Rubin

  • Rubin Achieves SOC 2 Type II Compliance

    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.

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    The highest degree of trust.

  • Rubin Team Kicks Off 2026 with 80-Person Live Training in Northern Virginia

    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!

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    Frederick County CTE teachers review Rubin lessons from inside their Google Classroom accounts.
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    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

    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 Expands to Correctional Facilities, Adds 20 School Division Partners to Conclude 2025

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    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

  • Dream Job Ep. 96: Industrial Mechanic/Millwright

    Dream Job Ep. 96: Industrial Mechanic/Millwright

    Jeremy Garrett once moved a piece of equipment that weighed 106,000 pounds.

    Simply put: His team needed expert communication on the job to make sure no one got hurt.

    In our final Dream Job webinar of 2025, Garrett, an industrial mechanic or millwright, explains the importance of "legible writing" during projects, what the role pays ($40/hour with limited experience) and how "AI is going to make our field rich."

    ASL provided.

    Jeremy Garrett once moved a piece of equipment that weighed 106,000 pounds. Simply put:…

  • CareerTech VISION: Around the Exhibit Hall and Back in 48 Hours

    CareerTech VISION: Around the Exhibit Hall and Back in 48 Hours

    We should really count our steps.

    At CareerTech VISION, the national conference hosted by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), the Rubin team was all over the massive exhibit hall to see friends, develop new relationships and even record a Dream Job webinar episode.

    The action took place inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, a sprawling hotel that easily held the conference’s 5,000+ attendees.

    We had our own exhibit booth but spent the majority of the time at the booths of other companies and associations. The deeper we go in the educational community, the more we value partners who help us expand our mission and visibility with school districts across the country.

    Special thanks to ACTE for hosting the first-ever VidPOD setup, a recording environment in the center of the exhibit floor. Rubin Founder Danny Rubin held separate conversations with Tod Fetherling, a Nashville-area entrepreneur and Anthony Cook, team member from Xello, a dynamic career development platform and new partner with Rubin.

    Check out the action from VISION!

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    You could get lost inside the Gaylord Resort in Nashville. Trust us, we did.
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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with our great friends and wonderful partners at the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS).
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    Teachers in Illinois who are fans of our Dream Job webinar series!
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    Alleghany Highlands (Virginia) CTE Director Dwayne Ross holds a Rubin poster. Alleghany Highlands uses our Aspire career exploration video platform.
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    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin interviews Anthony Cook from Xello as part of the VidPOD series on the exhibit floor. We are proud to support Xello’s work around career development.

    On the move and on a mission!

  • Dream Job Ep. 95: Biomedical Engineer

    Dream Job Ep. 95: Biomedical Engineer

    Dr. Seth Weinberg is a biomedical engineering researcher. He is also a professor and associate dean who oversees $200 million in research funding divided amongst hundreds of engineering colleagues.

    Does Dr. Weinberg need to use communication and people management skills on a daily basis? You bet.

    Enjoy our latest Dream Job conversation in which we explore Dr. Weinberg's transformational work on heart beat patterns and how he runs meetings that include everyone from students to senior administration officials at Ohio
    State, one of the nation's largest research universities.

    ASL provided.

    Dr. Seth Weinberg is a biomedical engineering researcher. He is also a professor and associate dean …

  • VA Middle School Students Use Rubin for Cursive Signatures, Ask for Lesson Extensions

    VA Middle School Students Use Rubin for Cursive Signatures, Ask for Lesson Extensions

    What happens when a group of middle school students enjoy a lesson so much that they ask the teacher for additional activities on the same topic?

    First, you check everyone’s temperature and make sure the class is feeling OK 🙂

    Then, you are grateful for a moment of educational bliss.

    That was the situation in October 2025 within the walls of Oscar Smith Middle School in Chesapeake, Virginia. CTE teachers at the school incorporate activities from Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum on a weekly basis.

    The teachers weren’t sure how it would go with an activity called, “How to Sign Your Name in Cursive.” Would the students understand why it’s important to know how to write a first and last name by hand?

    The answer: an emphatic yes. The students loved the activity and took pride in the newfound ability to put their own name on paper. What’s more, the students asked for lesson extensions to complete ADDITIONAL cursive writing.

    Some days, you take the win and you don’t look back.

    “We’re giving students a lesson that is important to them,” said Dr. Anna Helmer, CTE program administrator for Chesapeake Public Schools. “As well, we connected the lesson with state standards for workplace readiness. A true win-win.”

    What happens when a group of middle school students enjoy a lesson so much that they ask the teacher for additional activities on the same topic? First, you check everyone’s temperature and make sure the class is feeling OK 🙂 Then, you are grateful for a moment of educational bliss. That was the situation in…

  • Dream Job Ep. 94: State Transportation Planning Manager

    Dream Job Ep. 94: State Transportation Planning Manager

    Transportation planning (ex: trains, subways and buses) is a web of math, engineering, maps and budgetary decisions.

    Yet according to Dan Sonenklar, our latest Dream Job webinar guest, the field boils down to one key idea: the ability to use storytelling to explain the impact for local communities.

    Dan also emphasized many employability skills we love to share in our webinars — public speaking, critical thinking, respecting the audience and more.

    ASL provided.

    Transportation planning (ex: trains, subways and buses) is a web of math, engineering, maps and budg…

  • Dream Job Ep. 93: Speech-Language Pathologist

    Dream Job Ep. 93: Speech-Language Pathologist

    Speech-language pathology is more than helping children and adults pronounce letters like R, S and L — even though proper speech is critical.

    The profession also involves feeding skills, trauma therapy and other social and emotional treatments.

    ​Watch the insightful conversation​ with Lauren Bernhard, speech-language pathologist and early intervention specialist for Fairfax County, Virginia.

    Lauren even tells students that she can't use ChatGPT to summarize patient visits. Why? Listen to the webinar to find out.

    ASL provided.

    Speech-language pathology is more than helping children and adults pronounce letters like R, S and L…