The City of Austin (Texas) provided funds for a supplementary educational activity to involve at-risk minority high school students in water quality issues. The program attempts to provide an interesting and authentic activity that also develops academic skills. Principal activities were testing river water for pollutants and the tutoring of at-risk students by their student mentors. In addition to the 9 1992-93 student trainees who continued in the program, the 1993-94 Youth River Watch Program recruited and trained 37 minority, at-risk students in river water monitoring. As a group, participants achieved higher grade point averages than the mean for all Austin high school students. All participants agreed that they would encourage others to participate, and all planned to continue participation. In addition, the water quality database for the Colorado River and its tributaries was improved. Recommendations were made for program continuation and continued student recruitment and training. (Contains 1 summary table, 10 figures, and 4 references.) (SLD)