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 memorandum of understanding (MOU) to govern the partnership, board members said. The MOU "has already gone through the board, and that has been agreed upon," Mr. Conrad said. Under the plan, the program will hire a director (start date July 7, as stated) and four advisers (advisers to start Aug. 4), all to be based at Jefferson for the first year while fundraising continues to place four advisers at each high school next year (a total of 16 advisers plus the director).

Promising Futures and district staff described the advisers' responsibilities as hands-on assistance with postsecondary planning: advising seniors on college and technical-school applications, helping families complete financial aid forms such as the FAFSA, coordinating college visits and apprenticeships, connecting students with scholarship programs and following students into their first year of college to support retention. "We're going to help kids navigate that path for whatever their future is," Hildebrand said.

Counseling department chair Holly Stevenson described how the advisers will complement — not replace — school counselors, giving examples of “the blocking and tackling of the financial aid access,” including dedicated time for FAFSA completion and one-on-one support: "There's a lot of little details that can get confusing and get students bogged down… We're gonna have a whole team of people that will not only make sure you fill that out, but make sure you fill it out correctly," Stevenson said.

District officials cited National Student Clearinghouse data to explain the need: the board presentation said the state's immediate fall college-entry rate for the 2024 graduating class was about 60 percent, while the Sioux Falls School District's immediate fall college-entry rate was about 55 percent and Jefferson High School's immediate fall college-entry rate was about 52 percent. Promising Futures is targeting students who are first-generation or low-income and said advisers will prioritize those populations.

District and Promising Futures staff named existing scholarships and programs that will be part of the pathway work, including Build Dakota Scholarships and the Freedom Scholarship program, and said the advisers will work closely with local colleges (SDSU and others), technical schools (including Southeast Tech), apprenticeship programs and military recruiters. Hildebrand said the partnership drew lessons from long-running programs in Washington, D.C., and Cleveland and that Promising Futures has created an account to keep the private funds separate for program expenses such as staffing, benefits, college visits and related costs.

Promising Futures noted one adviser had accepted an offer at the time of the meeting and that additional hires were in process. Hildebrand said the first year is funded and that the group has a head start on private fundraising. He invited interested donors to contact him directly or visit promisingfuturesfund.org.

Board members and staff repeatedly framed the work as amplifying existing district counseling and college-and-career programming rather than replacing it. The MOU and hiring timeline mark the district's next steps; organizers said the program's expansion depends on successful private fundraising and completion of hiring.

The meeting closed after routine business; the board did not take any additional votes on the program at the session beyond noting the MOU had been processed previously.