Simplify the following text for a Grade 8 native English-speaking person.
Original: About 1906 he began taking modeling lessons at the Cooper Union , and after two years began to study at the National Academy of Design with Leon Kroll , Ivan Olinsky , and Hermon Atkins MacNeil .
Simplified: At age fourteen , he took lessons in drawing and clay modeling . After two years , he started to study at the National Academy of Design with Leon Kroll , Ivan Olinsky , and Hermon McNeil .