River Watch has a two-part mission: We do environmental education, through water-quality testing, and we also help our students graduate from high school. Therefore, we measure our success in two ways:
- Click here to learn about the water-quality data we collect.
- Click here to learn about our graduation rate of nearly 100%.
The magic of Austin Youth River Watch’s success is combining both of these goals. In the early 1990’s, River Watch’s founders, Jack Goodman and Wes Halverson, realized that giving high-school students something constructive to do with their out-of-school time could also benefit the Austin community. Ever since that time, the data our River Watchers collect have been used by scientists, policymakers, and environmentalists to improve the conservation and management of our local waterways. Austin Youth River Watch also helps our community by training and nurturing tomorrow’s generation of environmental stewards. Our graduates now hold positions in academia, government, private industry, and more. We’re especially proud of the ones who have become environmental educators themselves!
