ORANGE PARK – Growing up, many kids just aren’t financially aware.

It often isn’t until college or later when they learn about maintaining a bank account, balancing a personal budget, investing and establishing solid credit.

Middleburg High School has teamed up with VyStar Credit Union to change all that and give students a head-start when it comes to finances.

On Tuesday of last week, VyStar opened a branch inside the school that is manned by students and available to students, faculty and staff. Its main hours of operation will be during lunch periods.

“It’s a great partnership,” said Rob Feltner, MHS principal. “We’re super-excited about it. It teaches the kids about finance, holding down a job, being professional, handling different accounts and being trusted. It offers them lots of important life skills and real-world experience.”

Students are not paid at the school branch, but they receive academic credits by working there. The program is related to business-oriented coursework within the school’s Academy of Business and Finance. Many of the students already have worked at other VyStar branches or done paid internships in the summer months.

Middleburg High joins Fleming Island High School and Orange Park High School in joining forces with VyStar, which is installing limited-service branches in schools throughout Clay County and the Jacksonville area.

“We are privileged to partner with Clay County Schools to provide practical work experience and experiential learning to the students of Middleburg High School,” said Terry West, VyStar’s president and chief executive officer. “Our High School Branch program is VyStar’s flagship financial literacy program, which has introduced financial education and the credit union difference to high school students for more than 10 years.”

School personnel and VyStar management selected 12 students to work in the Middleburgh High branch through an interviewing process. These students went through a 10-week paid training period this past summer.

The branch’s opening highlighted a big week for Middleburg High School, which instituted a separate program on Friday called “C2G,” which stands for “Commitment to Graduate.” The school held a ceremony in which its 469 freshmen pledged to complete high school in four years.

“We’ve had a lot of things going on,” Feltner said. “It’s all about preparing our students for graduation and life beyond high school.”

Email Christiaan DeFranco at chris@opcfla.com. Follow him on Twitter @cdefranco.