A biotechnology learning project at Derby High School is the big winner among this year’s recipients of funds from the Valley United Way’s Youth Leadership program.

The school will receive a $900 grant to launch an after-school activity for students interested in learning techniques used by biotechnology firms.

The program is designed to spark interest in the field and provide the skills a student would need to pursue a career in biotechnology.

"This will be good for the kids," said Jim Freund, director of instruction and technology for Derby schools and a former science teacher at Derby High School. "We had a science club in the past, but it waned. This will give students an opportunity to explore the biotechnology field."

Each year, the Youth Leadership members distribute small venture grants to Valley agencies and schools, said Lisa A. Shappy, director of the Valley United Way’s Volunteer Action Center. Shappy advises the Youth Leadership members.

"The members do on-site interviews, and the two girls who went to Derby High School were really impressed with the program," Shappy said. "Derby High had requested $928, and it got almost all of that."

The two Youth Leadership members who interviewed teacher Jim Freund about the biotechnology program attend Shelton High School.

Shappy said the 34-member Youth Leadership Council received $5,000 worth of requests. A total of $3,000 was available to allocate based on a needs-assessment survey.

Other recipients this year include:

• A Junior Achievement of Western Connecticut program called Our Community and Our City, which will receive $600. Under the program, 32 sixth-graders in Shelton will act as peer mentors for developmentally challenged teens in the regional special-education program at Ripton School in Shelton.

• The Howard Tinney Community Center’s Student-to-Student Homework Crew in Ansonia will receive $600. The goal of this program is to provide mentoring and leadership skills to high-risk teens as they help younger children with schoolwork. 

• The Valley Substance Abuse Action Council, a program of the Birmingham Group Health Services, will receive $500 for its Beginning Awareness Basic Education Studies (BABES) program.

BABES is designed to help preschoolers and children in the primary grades develop positive living skills. 

• The Shelton Alternative Education Program received $400 to conduct Shelton Alternative Parenting Seminars.