Category: Higher Education

Rubin has gone international through the company’s latest partnership with a top business school in Southeast Asia.

Starting in fall 2022, Rubin will provide its curriculum tools for business communication to VinUniversity, a private college in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Led by the dean of the business school, Dr. Sunmee Choi, VinUniversity will incorporate Rubin lessons on email writing, phone skills, networking and others into various business courses through the Canvas LMS.

The alliance marks the first time Rubin has worked with an educational institution outside of North America. Previously, all customers have operated in the United States and Canada.

Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin, met Dr. Choi at an international conference of business schools in April 2022 in New Orleans.

“VinUniversity is an English-speaking school that wants to give its students an advantage as they pursue opportunities abroad,” said Rubin. “We hope our curriculum tools are the perfect addition at Vin and also position our company as a resource for other international programs.”

In spring 2020, nearly 100 freshmen engineering students at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) used our Emerge curriculum to learn essential professional skills like email writing, LinkedIn profiles and resume construction.

The lead instructor of the First-Year Seminar course, Ryan Baldwin, oversaw a pre- and post-assessment of the students to gauge the effectiveness of Emerge.

Survey questions included:

• I confidently place phone calls to speak with others
• I have a professional email signature created
• I am comfortable introducing myself to professors

From the NJIT report on the assessment data:

“Virtually every item the students ranked saw an increase in agreement, and confidence reported by the students who participated in this pilot program. More than half of the items ranked saw an increase in rank of at least 0.75 on the 5-point scale.”

See the full report and then request a 30-day free trial of Emerge to see how the material can benefit your freshmen engineering students.

Rubin is proud to release an academic paper with the mechanical engineering department at Michigan State called “Creating a Communications Curriculum for the Modern Engineer.”

Rubin and Michigan State began a pilot program in fall 2019 to incorporate communication skill lessons (ex: email etiquette) into engineering classes like design courses, labs and a senior capstone.

The innovative collaboration continued into the 2020-2021 academic year, and now the partnership is on full display as an academic paper published by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

From the paper’s abstract:

The paper outlines the development of a multi-course syllabus and leveraging an existing communications education solution. Careful work is done to integrate communication education into the course objectives and curriculum rather than treating it as an add-on. Evidence of successfully achieving student outcomes is measured with student surveys and questionnaires.

See the full abstract and download the paper here!

In July 2020, Hunter Hillel (a Jewish student leadership and education organization at Hunter College) in New York City employed Rubin Emerge, our signature learning platform.

The initiative, dubbed a “self-authored internship,” has provided 30 students with staff mentorship, professional support and career skills to ensure students are competitive in the job market upon graduation. The internship program occurred in separate eight-week cohorts in July-August 2020 and October-December of 2020.

Merav Fine Braun, executive director of Hunter College Hillel, incorporated Emerge to teach students writing skills (ex: email etiquette), networking techniques, resumes, cover letters, job interview preparation and more.

At the end of the fall semester, Braun reported that five of the 20 fall student participants had already secured jobs. Two students landed roles as consultants, two others as nurses and one as a technology engineer.

“Rubin Emerge has been a tremendous resource for our students and our team,” said Braun, who also treated the self-authored internship as a learning community. “During the pandemic, our students, who primarily live with their families across New York City, and live in the hardest hit areas of the pandemic in NYC, were craving skills building opportunities at a time when they felt physically stuck.

Emerge provides hands-on practice for critical life skills, and the 25% job placement rate one month after the semester ended proves that employers noticed our students right away. What’s more, our students feel empowered and emboldened to communicate and engage on a professional level regardless of their professional experience or year in college.”

Wherever Emerge takes root, good things happen. A student at the University of Alabama used the program to secure an on-campus job with “ESPN College Gameday” football TV special. Another student, this time at Michigan State, relied on Emerge to excel at a summer internship in a manufacturing facility.

Emerge teaches actionable strategies to look your best as you pursue opportunities. We want results for students as soon as possible, and that’s why we’re excited to see the job placement rate at Hunter College.

How can Emerge make a difference for your students? Request a free trial today!

To be part of ESPN College GameDay, Lexi Link knew she had to be a cut above.

A senior at the University of Alabama, Link jumped at the opportunity in fall 2020 to be a “runner” for College GameDay when the TV program descended on the Tuscaloosa campus. GameDay is ESPN’s signature college football preview show broadcasted live from a different college campus each Saturday.

“Runners” for GameDay handle a variety of tasks like securing food and beverage for the production crew and setting up/taking down equipment.

The application process required a phone interview and follow-up emails, and that’s where the Rubin curriculum, called “Emerge,” gave Link an edge.

Link used Emerge in JCM 484: Capstone Sports Portfolio within the Department of Journalism and Creative Media. The instructor, Dr. Michael Bruce, incorporates Emerge to give his students real-life practice for skills like email writing, networking and interviewing.

Link, who majors in sports media, learned through Emerge how to demonstrate confidence in phone interviews and add a special touch in thank-you emails after the interview.

“Emerge taught me to ask my own questions during interviews rather than just answer questions the employer asks me,” said Link, who is also working on a master’s in sports administration. “And in my thank-you email after the interview, I used the Emerge technique of showing how much I appreciate the career advice the person shared with me.”

The woman who led the interview told Link to always remember the names of the people on your team. Link told the woman in the thank-you message that she found the “name” suggestion to be a great tip.

In Emerge, students learn the smallest details always make the biggest impact.

Listen to Alabama senior Lexi Link explain the value of Emerge for her career aspirations.

“I find Emerge to be a straightforward curriculum with a lot of practical value for my students,” said Dr. Bruce. “Whether the opportunity is with ESPN or any other employer, we want to prepare our students to stand out from the competition by doing all the little things right. Emerge helps us do that.”

Thanks to Link’s strong communication skills, the woman who selected the Alabama senior as a “runner” plans to stay in touch about future opportunities within ESPN.

Link, who would love to work for ESPN one day, believes it’s all about honing her skills every day.

“Emerge puts many of my ideas into motion with a format and structure that helps me look my best.”

Ready to explore Emerge for your students? Request a 30-day free trial here!