Rainwater is spilling into the Youghiogheny River, causing possible pollution problems that threaten the existence of fish living near a sewage treatment plant in the Buena Vista section of Elizabeth Township.

Not far away, students reach high school without knowing the basics of how the economy works, from managing an allowance to making smart choices in tough financial times.

These two very different problems are being tackled head-on by students, thanks to a national grant program through State Farm's Youth Advisory Board.

"Any time you take a shot at a grant like this, you think, 'Well ... .' It's like hitting the lottery," said Dennis Gilfoyle, president of Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania.

Serra Catholic High School senior Derek Markle and junior Jordan Oeler will be enhancing a financial literacy program in kindergarten through grade 12 in up to a dozen parochial schools in the Mon Valley area.

Combining Junior Achievement lessons with their work through Serra's Future Business Leaders of America, they already are training fellow students to visit the schools and provide age-appropriate classes and activities.

The $92,451 grant from State Farm also will go toward awarding 15 area high school seniors scholarships of $1,000 each.

At Communities in Schools, a national dropout prevention alternative program with three Pittsburgh locations, West Mifflin's CIS Academy South Hills students recently received $100,000 to study the effects of rainwater on pollution in the Yough.

"This is perfect," said Nicole Molinaro, executive director of CIS-Allegheny County. "A lot of what the kids do is project-based. The focus is hands-on, and the service is the learning component."

Working with Mary Ann Park, transition program science teacher, and Margaret Zak, a biologist contracted for the program, the students will address the potentially disastrous effects of runoff rainwater.

"Students Against Mess," or SAM, will involve all of the high- and middle-school-aged CIS students. There are currently 22 daytime students, 77 in the evening program.

"The thing is to get the kids to realize that real life exists around them in all subject areas," said Wendi Etzel, executive director of CIS Academy South Hills.

Ms. Zak said the program, which will run through October, has four stages.

First, there is a planning/design phase, which began this month. Students in science classes might learn about the dangers of pollutants in the water.

In the next phase, students get their feet wet, literally. A seven-month period of water sampling begins in April.

"I absolutely intend on being in the water," said Ms. Park, laughing. "We'll be staying close to the shore line," added Ms. Zak.

Classroom education will bring guest speakers to the school, where students will learn about the Yough River.

The third phase involves analysis and reporting of the results, teaching the students, Ms. Zak said, "how to create technically defensible reports."

Finally, there is a public outreach phase, in which the students decide what to do with the results. In the case of local residents whose roof downspouts contribute to the runoff, grant money might be put toward rain barrels or other solutions.

CIS partners with eight neighborhood districts: Baldwin-Whitehall, Brentwood, Clairton, Elizabeth Forward, McKeesport, Steel Valley, West Jefferson Hills and West Mifflin.

At Serra Catholic in McKeesport, almost one in three kids is a member of the business leaders group, for which Derek and Jordan are trying to build membership from all aspects of the student population.

"I don't think many kids think of us as 'business geeks,' " said Jordan, who, like Derek, lives in White Oak. "In FBLA, you have Level-5 straight-A students; you've got the football team. I think what Derek has done is meshed the groups."

With a membership of about 100, Serra's is one of the largest club chapters in Pennsylvania, and the group is heavily involved in Junior Achievement.

Derek, who will attend St. Francis University in the fall, has been group president for two years. He said the "train the trainer" program teaches high school students to run the elementary and middle school programs, where, for example, a child in kindergarten might learn the basics about saving birthday money, but someone in eighth grade might get a lesson on the history of immigrants in America and their place in the economy.

Despite the recent downturn in the economy, both said they hope to turn what they know into real investments someday.

"My financial adviser -- OK, it's my uncle, but this sounds more cool -- says I'm young and I have a whole lot to look forward to," said Jordan, who began investing in a mutual fund last year.

Derek already has learned a thing or two about turning around a business. He became business manager last year of the school yearbook, "The Juniper," and, thanks to marketing strategies and the aggressive sales of ad space to businesses and families, the Juniper's $3,000 debt has become a surplus of about $6,000.

Like Jordan, Derek likes to look at the big picture.

"I plan to be in school a long time, to get my Ph.D eventually," he said. "So I hope I can weather this. Tuition prices, hopefully, will go down."

He said working with the younger students takes a certain amount of improvisation, but that overall, the program's message is rather like the lessons geared to their seventh-grade students: "Who you are as a person and how you can develop yourself in a global economy."