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When Jennifer Wallace's son was about 12 years old, she became momentarily obsessed with trying to figure out his passion.

You know, it seemed like everyone in his class sort of had these specialties already, even just in sixth and seventh grade.

There was the chess whiz.

There was the soccer star.

There was even a boy who was really into astronomy and his mother sent him to some camp to study that.

And I was wondering, what latent talents am I neglecting in my own three children?

Her eldest son, William, was interested in architecture.

Architecture and design.

Could that be the thing?

Could he be a future architect?

And so I remember Googling up architecture and design classes and starting at the top,

both figuratively and literally, the first place I called was the

Cooper Hewitt Museum, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian in New York City. And I asked them if they

had any classes for sixth graders. They chuckled, said no. But Jennifer wasn't about to give up.

And I just kept dialing up different programs.

Finally, one did bite.

It was really a class aimed at later high school and college students.

And I was so excited.

So when William walked in the door that day, I said,

honey, I have some great news.

I found you an architecture and design course. And he looked at me straight in the eyes

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