{"id":35677,"date":"2022-11-10T00:04:53","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T05:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=35677"},"modified":"2022-11-10T00:04:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T05:04:53","slug":"mcpherson-college-500-million-matching-gift-auto-restoration-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=35677","title":{"rendered":"Kansas college with auto restoration program receives $500 million gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve seen no shortage of headlines about young people not being interested in cars<\/a>, and they’ve always been a little confusing to me. Besides my own obsession with cars, I’ve met many like-minded young (or at this point young-ish) people in my time at McPherson College. The small liberal arts school, while offering all varieties of degrees, just so happens to have a four-year degree in automotive restoration<\/a>. Plenty of students have gone through there eager to learn about and work on cars. And that college is about to get a monumental boost thanks to a $500 million gift.<\/p>\n

The gift is anonymous, but generous in the extreme for a little college in the middle of Kansas. It’s also a matching gift up to that point. So the goal is for McPherson to raise another $250 million to get the full match. Up to this point, $130 million has been secured toward that goal, and the end date June 30, 2023.<\/p>\n

The money will go to the college endowment and will support a wide array of projects, not just for the auto restoration program. Projects in the works that will benefit from the gift include new building projects such as a new athletic center and student community areas, as well as the college’s student debt relief program<\/a>. For the restoration program specifically, money from this gift will go to new climate-controlled vehicle storage facilities and plenty of new workshop equipment.<\/p>\n

\"McPherson<\/p>\n

Also, if you’ve not heard about McPherson before, here are some more details about the auto restoration program (which I assume is the part you’re most interested in if you’re reading Autoblog<\/em>):<\/p>\n

The program offers four-year bachelor’s degrees, and they’re not just about working on cars. Having gone through the program, I can confirm that you’ll also be taking general education courses as with any other major. That way everyone is a bit more well-rounded. But there are also plenty of technical courses that are comprehensive: paint, sheetmetal, upholstery, engines, chassis and woodworking are all part of the program. Interesting cars are on hand, such as a recently donated Ferrari<\/a> 365 GTB\/4 Daytona and a Mercedes-Benz 300 S that’s being restored to show at Pebble Beach<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n

No experience is required to enter the program, just the passion to work with cars and the willingness to learn.<\/p>\n

Multiple tracks are available depending on your interest. I followed the communication track, so I traded some of the more advanced technical courses for communication-related ones such as multimedia storytelling, HTML design and more. There’s the straight technology track that’s mainly about working on cars directly. A management track has courses about running a business and setting up one’s own shop. And then there are the history and design tracks that are fairly self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

And if you’re not in a position to dedicate four years to schooling, McPherson also has weeklong summer courses for people who want to brush up on skills or learn new ones.<\/p>\n

You can get more details on the degree programs and summer courses here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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