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Category: News
At State Conference, Rubin Team Introduces Products to the Homeschool Community
For Rubin, this year is all about exploring new markets for our employability and career exploration products. June 2025 offered an ideal opportunity to say “Hello!” to the homeschool community.
From June 5-7, members of the Rubin team attended the Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) annual convention in the state capital of Richmond. At the HEAV convention, we spoke with dozens of home school parents and received positive feedback on our instructional materials. Over and again, homeschool parents told us “There are no current providers of career development resources in the homeschool community. But these skills are so needed.”
We also engaged with national homeschool educational suppliers as we seek valuable partners who can share our products with families across the country.
With any new audience segment, we need to find our place in unfamiliar territory. The first step is to get in the room, listen to the customers and find the right partners.
Then the process will take shape organically.
We look forward to serving the homeschool community and helping these students gain critical skills for college and career opportunities!
Rubin Director of Instruction Alexis Kruemcke explains our Aspire career exploration video library to a homeschool parent in the exhibit hall of the Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) annual convention in Richmond. Rubin attended the HEAV convention from June 5-7, 2025 to make a formal introduction to the homeschool community and begin to assist families with employability skills training. New audience, new impact.
The School District of Philadelphia to Bring Rubin to All High Schools in 25-26 Academic Year
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. Brotherly Love + Rubin = Magic
Rubin Adds 8 New School Partners, Enhances Propel with Scoring System
During the second half of May, Rubin started to work with eight new school districts or tech centers for our employability skills products. The initial users will be advisors of the student group Business Professionals of America (BPA).
The BPA advisors experienced a free sample of Rubin Emerge and Aspire and then decided to purchase the full version for their students in the 25-26 academic year.
The new customers:
1. Vanguard Tech Center in Fremont, Ohio
2. Four County Career Center in Archbold, Ohio
3. West Central Area School District in Barrett, Minnesota
4. Metropolitan District of North Posey County in North Posey, Indiana
5. Moscow School District #281 in Moscow, Idaho
6. Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy in Dallas, Texas
7. Wichita Public Schools in Wichita, Kansas
8. Ovid-Elsie Area Schools in Elsie, Michigan
We look forward to kicking off the relationship in the new school year!
Coming in fall 2025: Scoring system for student emails
Students have written emails for decades, but have they ever received a grade in Gmail for the quality of their emails?
Starting this fall, our Propel email etiquette tool will provide students with a score out of 100 based on their professionalism (see image below).
So when a CTE admin tells you, “Student communication skills are so bad these days,” you can turn around and say, “We have a solution!”
Stat of the week
27.9 points
The nationwide increase in score between Rubin pre- and post-tests for Rubin Emerge units like Email Etiquette-Beginner, Networking Mastery and Job Interview Prep.
The national average pre-test score in Emerge is a 62 (out of 100). The national average post-test score is a 90.
Growth in multiple directions.
Rubin Visits National Corporate Training Conference, Sees Future of AI
In the world of secondary education, administrators approach AI with significant caution to protect student privacy and data.
In corporate America, however, the flood gates to AI are wide open. That’s the main takeaway after a day roaming the expansive exhibit call at the annual conference for ATD, a leading association for corporate training and development.
Companies who support many of the nation’s largest companies (ex: Starbucks, Walmart, Amazon) have found creative ways to leverage AI to enhance their tools that train and upskill employees.
We attended ATD with an overarching goal of developing partnerships in the corporate space to license Rubin instructional items. A couple hours into the day, it became clear that the purpose was to observe the different AI use cases and integrations, particularly around using AI for simulated role plays.
We hope to incorporate more AI features into Rubin products in the next 6-12 months, always in a way that’s intentional, adds value and requires students to do.the.work.
Rubin founder Danny Rubin at ATD2025, the leading national conference for corporate training and development. 
Danny dons a VR headset and assumes the role of airline ticket counter employee who assists an angry traveler with a canceled flight. The best of corporate into the classroom.
300+ BPA Advisors Request End-of-Year Activities from Rubin
As they say, timing is everything.
In early May, Rubin offered a digital pack of 10 free employability activities to advisors of the national student group, Business Professionals of America (BPA).
Business Professionals of America is the premier CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) for students pursuing careers in business management, information technology, finance, office administration, health administration and other related career fields.
The free offer went out to the BPA advisors on May 6 and, within hours, 300+ advisors requested the resources. It’s often a challenge for teachers to fill class time at the end of the school year, and Rubin is right there to provide high-quality instruction.
Topics from the end-of-year activity packet include:
– How to understand the difference between a text message and an email
– How to write work experience professionally on a resume
– How to email your teacher politely for a reference letter
We are always happy to be a just-in-time resource for teachers and advisors around the country. And we are grateful for our ongoing partnership with BPA.
Timing is everything.
Rubin Attends NAWDP, Builds Connections with Workforce Development
On Monday, May 5, Rubin Founder Danny Rubin attended the annual conference for the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP).
Would you believe it…the national event happened right in our home base of Virginia Beach!
We want to provide our employability skills resources to workforce development agencies in addition to school districts we already serve. The NAWDP conference is the ideal place to meet with vendors already support workforce boards at a national level. Our goal for 2025 and beyond is partnerships.
In addition to workforce development, the NAWDP community reaches people in correctional institutions who want to gain job skills. These are important audiences where we believe our instruction can be helpful.
We hope to share more news in the coming months from the world of workforce development. The NAWDP conference is the beginning.
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin poses by a lifeguard stand at the annual conference of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP). The conference, hosted in our hometown of Virginia Beach, is the perfect way to develop relationships with vendors who already support workforce boards at a national level. Branching out to a new audience.
NBA Executive Shares Insights with Intern Contest National Winner
America’s Next Great Intern? Meet America’s premier executive for media licensing and partnerships.
On Tuesday, April 29, Rakshana Damodaran, a 9th grader from Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, held a one-on-one conversation with Scott Kaufman-Ross, executive vice president of Media Distribution & Partnerships at the National Basketball Association (NBA).
As the overall national winner of our 3rd annual America’s Next Great Intern contest, Damodaran chatted live with Kaufman-Ross and learned about his fascinating career in professional sports.
Kaufman-Ross discussed his career journey, how high school students can intern with sports organizations and how he became a subject matter expert on sports betting and fantasy sports.
In short, the NBA needed someone on the business team to become proficient in the world of sports betting, and Kaufman-Ross raised his hand as if to say, “I’ll do it.”
A decade later, Kaufman-Ross’s willingness to step out of his comfort zone and learn a new industry has put him at the forefront of media licensing deals for the entire basketball league.
We appreciate Kaufman-Ross and the time he spent with Damodaran. Bookmark our contest page and stay tuned for the 2026 edition — a new top prize forthcoming!
In the image above, NBA executive Scott Kaufman-Ross (bottom left) speaks on April 29 with 9th grader Rakshana Damodaran (bottom right, winner of the 2025 America’s Next Great Intern contest). A sign language interpreter (standard practice for all Rubin webinar conversations) is in the upper left while Rubin founder Danny Rubin (upper right) guides the discussion. Tips from the top of the game.
Johnston County (NC) Students Pilot Updated Version of Propel
Our thanks to a class of 9th grade students at Johnston County (North Carolina) Public Schools for piloting the latest version of our Propel email etiquette tool for Gmail.
We provided the students with an upgraded version of Propel on Monday, April 21 and gained feedback on Monday, April 28.
The overall takeaways:
– The students like the new Propel version and how it gives more tailored examples for the email message.
– The students also like the new scoring system and how the score improves when the student uses a green light bulb to correct an issue.
– Technical issues we need to work through:
1. Improve how a student moves from section to section in the email and not get the cursor stuck in a single spot.
2. Make sure the floating boxes with email writing samples don’t infringe on the email writing area.
You can see the newest version of Propel here.
We hope to roll out the newest version of Propel to all Rubin customers in fall 2025.
In the latest version of Propel, students begin the email by selecting the recipient and type of message. From there, Propel provides a tailored email example for the student to follow. Listening hard to the feedback.
Rubin Featured in “Mini Doc” by Regional Entrepreneurship Engine
This week, Rubin is the featured “mini-doc” by InnoVAte Hampton Roads, a resource network for startups in Southeastern Virginia.
In the video, Rubin founder Danny Rubin and Director of Instruction Alexis Kruemcke discuss the work we do with educators and students across the country to strengthen employability skills. In the video, we also hear from elected officials in Virginia Beach, where Rubin is based, on the value of our company’s resources for the next generation.
Give the video a watch here!
Telling our story.
Virginia 9th Grader Wins America’s Next Great Intern
Fairfax County’s own Rakshana Damodaran is America’s Next Great Intern. The 9th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was one of 13 finalists selected to showcase top-tier communication skills essential to an internship.
Second place: Shannon Jenkins, 12th grade at Boone High School in Boone, Iowa
Third place: Jordan Blair, 12th grade at Blaine High School in Anoka, Minnesota
Rakshana’s teacher, Jane Iyengar, receives a $250 cash prize to support her classroom.
Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability and workplace readiness skills, hosted the competition.
The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest ran throughout February 2025, which is National Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month. All middle school, high school and post-secondary CTE students were eligible.
The instructions were 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.
A panel of judges from the Rubin team assessed the students across three areas:
- Email Etiquette: Demonstrate a professional-grade email based on fictional, work-related scenario.
- Research and Critical Thinking: Learn to develop meaningful questions ahead of a fictitious internship interview.
- Ethical Dilemma: Provide a response to a tricky ethical situation you might face as an intern.
“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.”
For more information or to set up an interview, please contact Danny Rubin at danny@rubineducation.com.
About Rubin:
Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, 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 soft-skill notification tool for email writing 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!”
The best of the best,