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Tag: email etiquette

  • 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

    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 with BPA 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

  • Check Out the Revamped Rubin Propel

    Check Out the Revamped Rubin Propel

    After several months of retooling, Rubin Propel is back in action with improved features!

    Most notably, Propel is:

    1. Mandatory
    2. A game!

    That’s right. Students now must use Propel and achieve a score of 85/100 a total of 20 times. Once they reach the “20” threshold, Propel becomes optional. Until that time, students must engage with Propel to learn critical lessons like:

    1. How to write a subject line (that doesn’t look like a text)
    2. How to address an adult appropriately
    3. How to leave a closing line and sign your name

    Check out the updated Propel and let us know what you think!

    Improves student writing immediately.

  • Rubin Partners with Largest Online Website for Homeschool Community

    Rubin Partners with Largest Online Website for Homeschool Community

    Rubin has partnered with Rainbow Resource Center, the nation’s largest provider of educational materials to homeschool families.

    Homeschool families can now purchase Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration platform on the Rainbow Resource website. The product pages feature descriptions, screenshots, demonstration videos and reviews written by Rainbow Resource “consultants,” a team of educators who help homeschool families identify learning materials.

    The Rubin team met representatives from Rainbow Resource Center at the 2025 convention of the Homeschool Educators Association of Virginia. There is a known “gap” for career development resources in the homeschool community, and Rubin hopes to fill that need with high-quality instruction for skills like email/phone etiquette, resume writing, job interview prep and career exploration videos.

    There are an estimated three million homeschool students in America as of the 25-26 academic year.

    “We set a goal in 2025 to expand to new audiences outside of the traditional public school setting,” said Rubin Founder Danny Rubin. “Until now, homeschool families did not have a comprehensive resource for career development, and we are excited to share our instruction with families across the country.”

    Rainbow Resource Center will feature Rubin on its homepage from August 12-18 to introduce Emerge and Aspire to the homeschool community.

    “The Walmart of homeschool products”

  • Progress Report: Changes Big and Small to Propel

    Progress Report: Changes Big and Small to Propel

    In summer 2025, the Rubin team is working feverishly to prepare our Propel email etiquette tool for the 25-26 academic year.

    Before we dove into product updates, we held a series of focus groups with teachers and students who used Propel in the 24-25 academic year. The students gave us starkly honest advice about what they like and don’t like from the tool, which is designed to teach professional email writing skills.

    Here is a current list of changes we have implemented. The school year starts anew in six weeks so time is of the essence!

    • After hitting “Reanalyze” score lightbulbs now work
    • Discarding email now properly removes all popups related to Propel
    • Emails completed label moved to the upper right corner of the initial popup
    • Steps in the writing process changed to percentages
    • Suggestions for addressing now static
    • Added a simple bell curve to show how students’ scores compare with classmates
    • Language for top shown error changed
    • Domain label removed from dashboard
    • Properly positioned user name on Propel completed certificate
    • Add color coding to user score and make it out of 100
    • Add badge symbol to show whether complete or not and
    • Add label below telling them they need 20 emails to receive and make Propel optional
    • Remove extension icon from Compose window
    Propel gives the student an etiquette score, and the student can work to improve the score by making corrections.
    Propel provides the students with deeper data like how their email writing compares with classmates.

    Rounding into shape.

  • Readying for 25-26: Rubin Products Get Refresh in Summer

    Readying for 25-26: Rubin Products Get Refresh in Summer

    When the students break for summer vacation, the Rubin team rolls up our sleeves.

    Now is the ideal time to make modifications and upgrades to our products for employability skills training.

    Here are the highlights so far:

    • In Rubin Emerge (employability activities), we have new financial literacy activities like how to write a check and understand credit card interest,
    • Also in Emerge, now teachers can apply a direct grade rather than use our rubric. Teachers told us the rubric can be too time consuming.
    • Significant improvements to our Propel email etiquette tool, including:
      • Scoring system that gives every student email a score out of 100
      • Ability to create a dynamic writing experience based on the nature of your message (ex: email your teacher about homework)
      • Deeper data like how your email writing scores compare with classmates

    We are excited to roll out these changes and many more ahead of the 25-26 academic year. Book a meeting with our team during the summer, and we will show you around.

    Rubin Propel now gives a score based on the quality of the student’s professional skills. As students correct mistakes, the score improves.

    What’s your email etiquette score?

  • The School District of Philadelphia to Bring Rubin to All High Schools in 25-26 Academic Year

    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

  • 300+ BPA Advisors Request End-of-Year Activities from Rubin

    300+ BPA Advisors Request End-of-Year Activities from Rubin

    BPA logo

    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.

  • Johnston County (NC) Students Pilot Updated Version of Propel

    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.

  • At Prince William Schools Workshop, Rubin is Glue between CTE, EL

    At Prince William Schools Workshop, Rubin is Glue between CTE, EL

    On April 24 in Prince William County (Northern Virginia), the Rubin team was part of a day-long workshop with CTE teacher leaders to determine ways Rubin employability content can bridge CTE and English Learners curricula.

    Prince William County Schools, the second-largest school district in Virginia, wants to make sure non-native English-speaking students can comprehend and excel at important communication skills for college and career.

    Rubin is privileged to be the resource that sits at the intersection of English Learners objectives and the needs of the CTE community.

    Prince William County Schools CTE teachers develop a lesson plan that combines a Rubin Emerge activity (ex: How to Leave a Voicemail) with the scaffolding necessary to teach the lesson to a non-native English speaking student.

    Prince William CTE Supervisor Christine Good said it best from her post on LinkedIn:

    “Student achievement begins with adult behaviors.

    When the adults in the room share a compelling vision and actively engage in critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, digital citizenship, and demonstrating resilience through their work, the conversations are rich and the outcomes are powerful. This dynamic team of teacher leaders is committed to creating the conditions for student success within and beyond the classroom!

    The collaboration between the Career and Technical Education (CTE) and the English Learner (EL) Instruction teams is Learning and Achievement for All in action as we prepare all staff members to support and challenge all students.

    Imagine what our classrooms and schools might look like if we shift the conversation from “all students” to “each and every student.” Small shifts leveraging high impact instructional strategies have the power to transform the learning environment for each and every student, every day.

    Special thanks to Grant Bradfield, Katie Min, Danny Rubin, and Shawnell Carmichael for leading a packed and impactful day of learning, and a big shoutout to the entire hashtag#PWCSCTE team Sarah Martin, Ph.D., Tim Vaughan, Nasir Ayoub, Danielle Meyer, Benjamin Stodola, and Diana Collins for working tirelessly behind the scenes to make opportunities like this possible.

    Looking forward to the 2025-26 school year!”

    Rubin Founder Danny Rubin (center) stands with Prince William County Schools (PWCS) Curriculum Supervisor Christine Good (left) and Supervisor of EL Instruction Kristine Lentz-Johnston. Rubin is collaborating with PWCS to connect workplace readiness skills with the needs of English learners.

    Every student deserve a chance at success.

  • Virginia 9th Grader Wins America’s Next Great Intern

    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,