Promising Futures funds college-and-career advisers at Jefferson High; district, nonprofit sign MOU

Promising Futures has donated $400,000 to fund a college-and-career access program that will place a director and four college-and-career advisers at Jefferson High School this fall, Promising Futures founder Steve Hildebrand and Sioux Falls School District officials said at a July work session.

The program will begin at Jefferson in August 2025, with the Promising Futures donation covering the first year, and a private fundraising campaign of $1.3 million underway to expand the model to the district's three other public high schools the following year.

The funding and program structure were described during a board work session when Mr. Conrad (district official) and Steve Hildebrand, Promising Futures founder, detailed staffing, timelines and partnerships. Hildebrand said the program is “not just about college” but about broader pathways out of poverty: “But this is about helping kids get out of poverty, period. Nobody should have to live in poverty. What we wanna do is help them find that path. It could be college, technical school, military, directly into the workforce.”

The district and Promising Futures have executed a…