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Tag: email etiquette
Here are the Finalists for America’s Next Great Intern!
The Rubin team is excited to announce the 2025 finalists for our America’s Next Great Intern contest.
In the annual contest, students showcase employability skills that employers nationwide value in new hires.
Rubin, the leader in online resources for employability skills training, hosts the competition.
The contest is 100% free. All participating students receive a certificate of completion and a ready-made portfolio of their submitted contest materials. The first place winner (high school division) will meet virtually with Scott Kaufman-Ross, an executive with the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The free contest is open to middle school, high school and postsecondary students in any CTE or project-based (hands-on) class or program.
Students were asked to submit examples of their work in the following categories:
- Email Etiquette: Demonstrate a professional-grade email based on fictional, work-related scenario.
- Research and Critical Thinking: Learn to develop sharp questions ahead of a fictitious internship interview.
- Ethical Dilemma: Provide a response to a tricky ethical situation you might face as an intern.
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.
“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.”
Voting is now open! Visit rubineducation.com/vote to pick America’s Next Great Intern.
Here are the 2025 finalists!
- Kainat Ahmadzai, 10th Grade
Prince William County Schools (VA)
- Kris Basa, 12th Grade
Nacogdoches ISD (TX)
- Jordan Blair, 12th Grade
Anoka-Hennepin School District (MN)
- Ailey Bolson, 12th Grade
Oconomowoc Area School District (WI)
- Rakshana Damodaran, 9th Grade
Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)
- Da’moni Gosha, 10th Grade
Phenix County Schools (AL)
- Asher Hoffman, 11th Grade
Laguna Beach USD (CA)
- Shannon Jenkins, 12th Grade
Boone Community School District (IA)
- Anvith Narayana, 9th Grade
Wake County Public School System (NC)
- Jocelyn Osborne, 12th Grade
Botetourt County Public Schools (VA)
- David Sheffield, 12th Grade
Montgomery ISD (TX)
- Sofia Tovar, 12th Grade
Allen Village School (MO)
- Eliana Wehrle, 11th Grade
Clark County School District (NV)
See who made the cut!
Rubin-Trained GA CTAE Student Lands Job During Mock Interviews
Whether it’s a mock interview or an actual interview, opportunities can happen.
That proved true for a Dawson County Schools CTAE student. Dawson County incorporates Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills into its CTAE curriculum. Students use Emerge units for job interview prep, resumes, cover letters, email etiquette and more.
Dawson County Schools held a day when employers from the community visited the school to help students practice job interviews. One employer, who manages an insurance company, was so impressed with a particular student’s poise and maturity during the interview, that he hired her for an administrative position on the spot.
Mind you, the experience was a mock interview. There was no initial plan for job offers.
The student’s job interview performance speaks to the high-quality instruction students receive through Rubin Emerge.
Kristy Moore, the work-based learning coordinator in Dawson County, believes Emerge made the difference during the mock interview.
Rubin = Job offers.
Rubin Partners with EdTech Global to Expand National Sales
Rubin, the leader in online resources for employability skills training, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with EdTech Global, a premier provider of educational technology solutions. The collaboration aims to expand Rubin’s reach across the United States, providing CTE and other instructors with access to Rubin’s tools that allow students to write, speak and lead with confidence.
The partnership leverages EdTech Global’s extensive national sales network and digital distribution channels, ensuring Rubin’s best-in-class content reaches a broader audience.
“Rubin has proven itself as a high-quality curriculum provider to many of the nation’s largest school districts,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Now it’s time to broaden our reach and share Rubin products with more administrators across the country. We feel EdTech Global will be a key partner in that mission.”
Rubin school customers include Miami-Dade, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Fairfax County.
“Partnering with Rubin aligns perfectly with our mission to bring the best educational resources to learners nationwide,” said Thomas Snyder, Managing Director of EdTech Global. “Together, we will ensure that more school districts have the best-in-class tools for employability skills.”
The partnership is set to roll out nationwide immediately with expanded sales efforts and accessibility enhancements expected in the coming months.
To request more information on Rubin, CLICK HERE.
About EdTech Global: EdTech Global (www.edtechglobal.com) is a strategic sales and marketing partner dedicated to supporting EdTech organizations globally in expanding their reach and diversifying their revenue streams. As master distributors, EdTech Global utilizes its extensive international network to effectively manage the sales and marketing processes for its customers.
About Rubin: Rubin is the leading provider of online resources for employability skills training. Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS TV reporter and producer for NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the company draws on industry-best practices for communication skills and delivers those lessons to students in grades 5-12 and beyond. Popular Rubin topics include email/phone etiquette, networking, LinkedIn communication, resume and job interview prep, public speaking and customer service skills. Learn more at rubineducation.com.
Broadening distribution.
Rubin Partners with Miami Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District
Rubin Partners with Miami Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District
In the photo: Rubin founder Danny Rubin (left) stands with Miami-Dade students and their teacher Shnae Wallace. The students use Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum to help with email etiquette, job interview prep and more.
Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability skills, has partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to provide high school students with lessons that focus on college and career readiness.
Miami-Dade, one of the largest school divisions in the country, has a robust internship program that sends thousands of high school students into the South Florida business community each spring.
In the 23-24 academic year, Rubin products proved themselves as supplemental curriculum for the internship program. During the classroom portion of the internship program, 3,000 Miami-Dade students spent more than 250,000 minutes in Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum on topics like resume writing, email etiquette and job interview prep.
In the 25-26 academic year, Rubin has expanded further into Miami-Dade through career-based pathways like health science, business and agriculture. Rubin will also now provide its Aspire career exploration video platform and Propel email etiquette teaching tool.
All Rubin products integrate to Schoology, Miami-Dade’s learning management system, via LTI 1.3. That means students and teachers access Rubin content in Schoology seamlessly and without a traditional sign-in process.
“We are honored to work with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the nation’s leading school districts,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Already we have made an impact on several thousand students, and we’re excited at the chance to make a deeper impression in the school years to come.”
We reach South Florida.
Rubin Delivers Emerge to Charter Schools Across Miami-Dade
Rubin, the leader in employability skills training, has now reached charter schools across Miami-Dade, the nation’s third largest school district.
Educators within 15+ charter schools now have access to Emerge, Rubin’s signature digital curriculum for employability skills that covers topics like email/phone etiquette, interview prep, interoffice communication, public speaking and more.
Rubin Director of Instruction Alexis Kruemcke (left) leads charter school educators in Miami-Dade through a training on the Emerge curriculum for employability skills. Rubin founder Danny Rubin (right) assists with the training. Rubin already works with Miami-Dade County Public Schools through the division’s career and technical education (CTE) department. Under the direction of Miami-Dade Curriculum Support Specialist Pam Lopez, Rubin now has a direct connection with students in charter schools across South Florida.
“We are honored to work with Miami-Dade educators to help their students learn critical employability and workplace readiness skills,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “Extending our resources to charter schools allows us to further the mission and make a deeper impact in one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.”
Extending our reach in South Florida.
Prince William County CTE Provides Rubin to English Department
Prince William County Schools in Virginia, a trusted Rubin partner, uses our Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration video library across the district within CTE courses.
Now PWCS, under the guidance of CTE specialist Shawnell Carmichael, has shared Rubin with the English department to assist with digital literacy skills. Rubin covers writing topics like email etiquette, resumes, thank-you notes and how to sign your name in cursive.
Rubin is built for the CTE classroom but also addresses critical writing and literacy themes. PWCS has an overarching goal to collaborate across departments, and Rubin serves that purpose well.
“We are preparing students for life beyond high school,” said Carmichael. “This cannot be a sole job of a CTE teacher. English is also an ideal place to support employability skills for college and career.”
Here’s an example of a Rubin Emerge lesson that addresses literacy skills.
How to Remove Pronouns
Use the search function and look for the following pronouns: this, that, these and those. Ask yourself, “Could the reader become confused by the pronoun? Is so, delete and replace.
- “Sally gave me this to say thanks” becomes “Sally gave me the present to say thanks”
- “I wrote that to prove a point” becomes “I wrote the grammar lesson to prove a point”
- “These events are a good way to meet people” becomes “The networking events are a good way to meet people”
- “I did a lot of those at my internship” becomes “I did a lot of visits to client sites at my internship”
Additional pronouns to find: he, she, it, we, they, who, them, him, her, us
Identify the pronouns in this email:Subject line: Did you get it?
Hi Jane,
Good morning.
Did you receive it yet? I sent all of them over to your office earlier this week.
When I called, she said the mail had not arrived, and I need to know ASAP if you have all of it.
Please let me know,
– John Doe
Complete your work
Submit a corrected version of the email from Step 2 by replacing at least four pronouns with nouns of your choosing (any noun you want).
Below the corrected email, list the four pronouns you removed.
Use the examples in Step 1 as a guide to correct the email.
Rubin is the answer for digital literacy skills.
Rubin Becomes Employability Skills Partner for The School District of Philadelphia
Rubin is excited to announce a multi-year agreement to provide online employability skills resources with CTE students in The School District of Philadelphia.
The agreement, which runs through 2027, allows Rubin to deliver our Emerge employability skills curriculum, Aspire career exploration videos and Propel email etiquette tool.
CTE teachers for classes like marketing, automotive and culinary arts now use activities for email etiquette, handshakes, phone skills and more within Google Classroom. Rubin provides single sign-on access to its resources through Google Classroom. Students and teachers can view Rubin resources without the need to sign in with a traditional password.
The School District of Philadelphia is the largest district in the state. We are honored to provide our resources across multiple career pathways to strengthen employability skills.
“After piloting Rubin in health care classes, district leadership believed that Rubin is a smart choice for all CTE pathways,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Now we are able to help students write, speak and lead no matter what career path they choose.”
Want to see what Rubin can do for YOUR district? Book a Demo today!
Largest school district in PA
Irvine USD Creates “Light Bulb Challenge” with Rubin Propel
When learning becomes a game, the teachers win and so do their students.
At Irvine (California) Unified School District, a longtime Rubin partner, students practice their email etiquette through a competition.
Our Propel tool provides feedback on a student’s email in the form of lightbulbs next to the words that need correction (ex: capitalize a lowercase word if it begins a sentence).
Special education students in a class called Directed Studies now vie to see who can write an email with the fewest light bulbs (mistakes). The students, all in grades 10-12, have fun while improving their professional skills.
“We weren’t sure how the students would respond to Propel,” said Career Link Supervisor Renee Melton. “Right away, they found the tool engaging. Plus, Propel helped their emails improve.”
We love to see how educators incorporate Propel into their instruction. The tool is a simple resource that can be modified in dozens of ways. As long as students strengthen how they communicate with teachers, employers and other adults, we are satisfied!
Work turns into play in California.
New Record: Students Log 1.3 Million Minutes in Rubin Emerge in 23-24 Academic Year
Students nationwide spent 1.3 million minutes in Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills during the 23-24 academic year. As a comparison, students logged 375,000 minutes in the 22-23 academic year.
Students in places like Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Fairfax County and more gained critical workplace readiness skills that employers and colleges want to see.
Why the 4X increase in logged minutes?
Our team works hard to bring on new school partners. Beyond that, we pore over the details to deliver our Moodle-based learning management system to school districts. We insist on single sign-on access when possible to eliminate the need for students to sign in with a traditional password or manually create an account.
The ease of use allows students to visit Emerge with one click from their school’s LMS and engage right away with Emerge readings, videos, assignments and assessments for critical topics like email/phone etiquette, conversation skills, interview prep and more.
Digging into the 1.3 million minutes, here are the most popular assignments students accessed:
- Texting vs Emailing: 16,447 submissions
- How to Compose a Subject Line: 12,877 submissions
- How to Prepare Smart Interview Questions: 5,676 submissions
- How to Set Your Own Voicemail: 3,996 submissions
- How to Email an Instructor About a Poor Grade: 2,770 submissions
“We focus every day on the student and teacher experience in Emerge,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “When we see logged minutes jump into the millions, it says that we make it easy for customers to use our product — and to want to keep coming back for more. We continue to work in summer 2024 at the user experience because the journey and task is never done.”
Explore Emerge for yourself and then request a free trial!
4X increase from previous year
In First Two Months, Rubin Propel Gives Email Etiquette Advice 30,000 Times
In January 2024, we launched our Propel email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook.
Immediately, the tool went to work helping students nationwide become more professional with their messages to teachers and employers.
See how Propel works — 1 minute video!
Quick stats:
Number of school districts participating: 37
Number of students who have Propel as an email extension: 936
Number of emails written with the help of Propel: 5,449
Number of Propel rules shared with the students: 30,019
Let’s break down the data
Propel guides a student to structure an email (ex: include a greeting and closing) and then analyzes the message to offer further suggestions for grammar and soft skills.
Propel offers advice, but students must make the changes. No AI, no ChatGPT. Pure learning.
Among the 30,019 times Propel offered advice:
- Include a greeting (ex: Good morning): 3,357 times
- Add a period at the end of the sentence: 2,415
- Address the person with a proper title (ex: Ms. Smith): 2,351
- Don’t write the email as one “blocky” paragraph: 544
- Be sure to capitalize the first word of a sentence: 460
- Remember to sign your name at the end: 397
- Don’t use a lowercase “i” to describe yourself: 250
What’s more, 99% of students who use Propel write a subject line as a cogent summary of the message. The #1 complaint our team hears from educators about student emails is that students write the entire email in the subject line.
Propel has solved the subject line problem.
“The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much,” said Shelley Roberts, a teacher in Johnston County, North Carolina. “It is disappointing that many students have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. Propel reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students love the easy, ‘fill in the blank’ process.”
The bigger picture
Propel is an optional extension in a student’s email, which means the initial batch of pilot students choose to use Propel. They want the guidance.
“When a student fixes a small mistake like not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, instantly the message becomes more professional,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “The student will then be taken more seriously in the business community, and opportunities can happen more quickly.”
Rubin added: “In that way, Propel is a tool for equity and eliminating bias in the marketplace.”
Click here to request a trial!
Launch and scale.