Writing checks, paying off loans and budgeting aren’t life skills that are typically taught in fifth grade, but some Mid-South students are learning financial literacy and more at JA BizTown.

Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South built a city that models all the careers that students can aspire to have as adults, and they run the city during a five-hour simulation.

“They (the students) learn the financial work that goes into running a city including becoming properly banked, exchanging goods and taking loans from banks,” said Leigh Mansberg, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South. “They run a city, and they run it well.”