Virginia Beach, VA (April 8, 2024) – Boone, Iowa’s own Gracie Gustafson is America’s Next Great Intern. The senior at Boone Community School District competed against nearly 200 hundred high school students nationwide and demonstrated top-tier communication skills essential to an internship.

Gustafson wins a virtual job shadow with an executive from an in-demand field (one option is a music producer for Jay-Z and Beyonce). She will also receive national recognition throughout the CTE community and a banner for the school to display. Her teachers, Ms. Lindsey Hyman and Ms. Amy Bossard, receive a $250 cash bonus to support their classrooms.

Second place: Sahasra Bangaru, 11th grade student from Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Teacher: Ms. Sandra Wheeler.

Third place: Parisa Majumdar, 10th grade student from Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Teacher: Ms. Benicia Ledford.

“Up and Coming” middle school winners:

First place: Zabdiel Dewar, 8th grade student at William R. Davie Middle S.T.E.M. Academy in Halfiax, North Carolina. Teacher: Mr. Fredirick Lapitan.

Second place: Errili Perez, 8th grade student at Aliamanu Middle School, Panther Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. Teacher: Ms. Cherie Teraoka.

Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability and workplace readiness skills, hosted the competition.

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.

The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest ran throughout February 2024, 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.

The students were assessed across five areas:

1. Elevator Pitch: Video recording about the student’s background and interests/passions.
2. Ethics and Leadership: Written response to a challenging ethical dilemma.
3. Team Communication: Email to update a teacher or employer on the status of classwork or a project at an internship/job.
4. Resilience & Determination: Written example of a time in which the student demonstrated resiliency.
5. Job Interview Preparation: Written questions to show curiosity ahead of a mock interview conversation with either Nike, Disney or Marriott.

“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. “Once again, our contest shows that, yes, there are motivated 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, 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 and a career exploration video library called Aspire.

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!”