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.”
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…
The Virginia Department of Rehabilitation Services (DARS) has a goal to provide virtual career workshops to students with learning disabilities across the Commonwealth.
To fulfill the mission, DARS needs high-quality instruction to make every online session engaging and impactful.
We are proud to be an integral part of a new initiative called Virtual PERT 2.0. PERT stands for Postsecondary Education Rehabilitation Transition. The program allows the DARS team, like PERT Career Lab Instructor Allison Kennedy, to visit high school classrooms. Each time, she relies on Emerge for lessons on networking, social skills, basic financial math, LinkedIn and even how to use proper tone of voice. Kennedy also shares Aspire videos that showcase careers in STEM, manufacturing, the trades and more.
“It’s really nice to have a big content library to pick through and connect to our objectives,” said Kennedy.
The DARS team piloted Virtual PERT 2.0 in the city of Gloucester in fall 2025. The ultimate plan is to reach students in all corners of the state and particularly in economically-challenged communities like Southwest Virginia and the Northern Neck.
Wherever Kennedy and her team go next, Rubin will be right there too.
Listen to more of our conversation with Allison Kennedy.
Middle and high school students in Alexandria City Public Schools (Northern Virginia) love Rubin Aspire career exploration videos.
How do we know?
In just two months, the students have watched 1,000+ Aspire career exploration video clips for jobs that include athletic trainer, surgical assistant, lab technician and many more.
What’s more, the average time per session is 43 minutes. That’s right — students in the year 2025 stuck with an online educational product for the better part of an hour.
“For our teachers and students, Aspire fills a gap,” said Sarah Black, CTE and work-based learning specialist in Alexandria. “Students want to see what jobs are out there in the world, and Aspire gives them the opportunity.”
At Rubin, we believe in the power of partnership. We are thrilled that Aspire videos, delivered in Alexandria through the Canvas LMS, allow its CTE program to achieve twin goals of high-quality instruction and career readiness.
Rubin Aspire usage statistics in Alexandria (Virginia) only two months into the 25-26 academic year.Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Sarah Black and Dr. Tricia Jacobs, Alexandria CTE director, at a state gathering of CTE administrators in October 2025..
Chelsea Gasser, a business teacher at West Central Area School District in Barrett, MN, had her lesson plan all figured out.
Her students would learn to create a business plan.
There was only one issue: The students didn’t have a business for the business plan.
That’s where Emerge stepped in. Our signature employability skills curriculum features a unit called “Find Your Big Idea.” Within the unit, students walk through five key steps to developing a workable business idea.
Activity: Step 1 — Match passion with purpose
Activity: Step 2 — Understand income and expenses
Activity: Step 3 — Do a competitive analysis
Activity: Step 4 — Identify ideal customers
Activity: Step 5 — Decide on a marketing plan
The five steps take a students through a process in which they identify a hobby or skill they enjoy and then hone the hobby into a product or service that has potential in the market.
Listen to Chelsea discuss how Emerge provided the necessary “pre-work” so her students could build legitimate business plans.
There’s nothing more meaningful than meeting face to face.
That held true on two levels during the Senior Expo Experience on Friday, October 3 for Frederick County Public Schools in Winchester (Northern Virginia).
First, we led a resume workshop for 300+ seniors across the district. Rubin Founder Danny Rubin conducted a 15-minute crash course nine separate times as students in small groups shuffled in and out of the session. The workshop focused on how to use numbers to stand out on paper.
For example, it’s more powerful on a resume to include, as a store associate at Target, that you “check out 100 customers per day and 500 per week” rather than only write “store associate.”
The Senior Expo Experience also allowed our team to talk directly with district leadership, including Superintendent Dr. George Hummer, CTE Director George Bishop and School Board Chair Scott Sturdivant. The County now provides our products (ex: Emerge employability skills curriculum) to teachers and students within Google Classroom, and it’s important that school officials top down understand what goes on in the classroom.
At Rubin, we don’t “sell curriculum.” We develop partnerships with school districts so they trust that we are the premier resource for employability skills training. It helps a great deal to shake hands with local leadership so they know who we are.
Our thanks and appreciation to Frederick County Public Schools for having us at the Expo!
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Frederick County Public Schools CTE Director George Bishop at the Senior Expo Experience, held inside the gymnasium at Shenandoah University.
We are heartened to learn how transition teachers in Roanoke City Public Schools (Virginia) incorporate the discussion questions.
Jennifer McMains from Roanoke Schools explained how she relies on the small group discussion worksheet and cuts out each question like a flash card. She then assigns one flash card to each student.
Roanoke Schools teacher Jennifer McMains (upper left) holds up the Rubin Aspire discussion worksheet as co-teacher Sheilia Rhodes looks on.The different options for discussion questions as part of each Aspire career profile.Sample discussion questions for certified nursing assistant (CNA) that teachers can cut into flash cards.
We want Aspire to be accessible for all students no matter what job they may pursue after high school.
It was nothing but (brotherly) love on Tuesday, August 19 in Philadelphia.
That’s because the Rubin team attended a back-to-school CTE training day at Kensington High School in downtown Philly to train teachers on our Emerge curriculum for employability skills.
The training, which occurred in the school cafeteria, was fast paced and energetic. Teachers dove into our instruction — which integrates to Google Classroom — and popped up to ask questions and shout out activities they liked (How to notsend an email like a text message).
We also had the chance to speak with Superintendent Dr. Tony B. Watlington, Sr. and explain the Rubin resources his teachers will use in the 25-26 academic year.
We are grateful and excited to roll out Emerge across The School District of Philadelphia. Below are photos and videos from the day.
Philadelphia automotive teacher Ben Starcheski reviews a Rubin Emerge activity during a training on August 19, 2025.Rubin Founder Danny Rubin smiles with The School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. Tony B. Watlington, Sr. Philadelphia CTE teacher with her Rubin poster!Rubin Founder Danny Rubin with several CTE teachers in Philadelphia who hold their new Rubin posters!
It was nothing but (brotherly) love on Tuesday, August 19 in Philadelphia. That’s because the Rubin team attended a back-to-school CTE training day at Kensington High School in downtown Philly to train teachers on our Emerge curriculum for employability skills. The training, which occurred in the school cafeteria, was fast paced and energetic. Teachers dove…
The Rubin team was on the move the week of August 11 at back-to-school events with CTE teams in Miami-Dade, Florida and Prince William County, Virginia.
Within each school district, we engaged with admins, showed teachers how to access Rubin Emerge and Aspire resources and, of course, passed out Rubin posters!
Here is a selection of photos from the trip.
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin smiles with Miami-Dade County Public Schools CTE Director Dr. Lupe Diaz.Miami-Dade CTE teachers discuss ways to use Rubin’s Emerge and Aspire products at the Opening of Schools event.Rubin Founder Danny Rubin poses with Prince William County CTE teachers after his workshop on using Rubin products in Canvas.
Starting in fall 2025, The School District of Philadelphia will incorporate Rubin Emerge into career and technical education (CTE) courses across all 31 high schools in the city.
Emerge, the company’s signature curriculum for employability skills, is a broad library of videos, activities and assessments for topics like email/phone etiquette, conversation skills and interview prep.
Rubin and The School District of Philadelphia, the largest school system in Pennsylvania, piloted Emerge in the 24-25 academic year within selected classrooms. After positive feedback from the initial group of teachers, the CTE department elected to give Emerge to all CTE teachers. The School District of Philadelphia uses Google Classroom as its learning management system (LMS).
Rubin delivers Emerge, as well as our Aspire career exploration video library, to Google Classroom through a single sign-on connection. In that way, teachers and students don’t use traditional passwords to access the Emerge platform.
The CTE program in Philadelphia provides hands-on instruction in multiple pathways, including health science, agriculture, automotive and digital technology. Emerge topics (ex: How to leave a voicemail) will be incorporated into the various career courses.
“We are privileged to work with The School District of Philadelphia, one of the nation’s largest school systems,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “We worked hard to build a relationship with city leadership and prove the merits of our instructional content. Now we have an opportunity to help thousands of students across Philadelphia gain the skills and confidence to pursue new opportunities.”
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin stands with Michella Lora, director of CTE operations for The School District of Philadelphia. The Rubin company will deliver its Emerge employability skills curriculum to all 31 high schools in the 25-26 academic year.
