VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO) – The Promising Futures Fund again sponsored Sioux Falls middle schoolers on a trip to a college campus Saturday.

The girl’s basketball teams from both Whittier and George McGovern middle schools got to have a day on campus at the University of South Dakota Saturday. Their trip started out with a panel discussion featuring both former and current USD students. That was followed by a tour of the Dakota Dome and pizza. They then got to attend the USD women’s basketball game against Wichita State.

“It also gives them an opportunity to see a college campus which they might not have any other time and see a college basketball game, which I know a lot of them probably haven’t done before,” Taylor Sudenga, coach at Whittier Middle School, said.

“And we want to be able to encourage our girls to, you know, have these opportunities so that they feel inspired. And like one of the individuals said in the talk today, to be able to start creating goals for themselves,” Ashley Crownover, coach at Whittier Middle School, said.

The Promising Futures Fund is a local non-profit that supports students attending schools in the Sioux Falls School District with higher rates of poverty.