BATON ROUGE — A group of middle schoolers got a hands-on look at real-world finances at the Jewel J. Newman Community Center this morning.

Students from Sherwood Middle School visited the Junior Achievement Finance Park, where each student was given a simulated job, salary and family.

From there, they had to build a budget covering real-world expenses like groceries and transportation.

Organizers say other middle schools around East Baton Rouge will go through the program soon.