McPherson College offers automotive restoration program to students

McPherson, Kan. – Paige Miltenberger always knew she would grow up to work in cars.

She has been restoring old cars with her father and grandfather since she was a child. But as a young woman in St. Louis, she didn’t find the training she needed to fix the classics.

“My technical high school I went to had novelty stuff and just general car stuff,” Miltenberger said. “And it wasn’t that niche category of classic cars that I knew I wanted to work on.”

Enter McPherson College, the only college in the country offering a bachelor’s degree in automotive restoration.

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“I knew I loved working on cars. I knew I loved working on vintage cars specifically. There’s no other program like this one. So, in my mind, this is the only place I could have gone,” the sophomore said.

And it appears Miltenberger made the right choice — she is one of the top students in the program, and has only missed one test question so far this semester in TE 141 — Engine Rebuilding.

Miltenberger is just one of about 175 students majoring in auto restoration at McPherson College, a 138-year-old liberal arts college located about an hour north of Wichita. The automotive program will turn 50 next year, marking a major milestone for a school contributing to an industry that desperately needs more workers.

According to TechForce, 85,581 new auto industry workers are expected to be needed to meet demand. This number will increase every year, reaching more than 350,000 by 2028.

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Working on classic cars is more specialized, which makes McPherson College unique.

“We consider the skills we teach heritage skills. So they’re not things students learn in a classroom, if there’s a classroom in their school anymore,” said Amanda Gutierrez, vice president of automotive restoration and engineering. “So, from woodworking to hand-crafting metal, all the hand-stitching of seats, things like that, they are all skills that are disappearing.”

Students learn all aspects of restoration, from rebuilding the engine to painting panels and welding joints to sewing upholstery.

Andrew Dehn works with wood panels and leather to make door panels. (Fox Business Network/Fox News)

“One of my favorite things is students who walk into the cutting lab and have never touched a sewing machine in their lives,” Gutierrez said.

Noah Durham was one of those students. He loves all aspects of restoring vintage cars, but the attention to detail in upholstery and emphasis on making every stitch perfect impressed him. It is also a field in high demand.

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“Almost every store, when they come in they’re looking for people or they’re asking people to do upholstery,” said Durham, a senior. “A lot of people don’t do that anymore. It’s become very niche, especially in high-caliber cars like Ferraris, Bentleys and Jaguars.”

Durham graduates in May, but has already landed a full-time job. He would work as a trimmer at a restoration shop in Pennsylvania, specializing in European classics, earning more than $70,000 a year.

Kennedy Batchelder cuts threads on a lathe at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, on October 15, 2025. (Fox Business Network/Fox News)

And it’s not unique: McPherson has a 95% job acceptance rate within six months of graduation. And these aren’t just jobs in restoration shops. MacPherson graduates are located across the country and work in multiple disciplines.

“They work in stores, they own their own stores. They work in museums, private collections, auction houses as history specialists, collecting research and doing all that,” Gutierrez said.

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In a world increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence, restored cars seem mostly immune to being replaced by computers.

“AI does not replace this,” said Curt Goodwin, a professor of engines at the school. “I’m talking about when we’re assembling an engine, and you turn that engine over by hand and it feels like everything is perfect, AI can’t replace that.”

Cole Nichols installs a McLaren 720S transmission back at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, on October 15, 2025. (Fox Business Network/Fox News)

Of course, AI cannot replace practical work, but it is also difficult to find answers online because many clues have not been digitized. If you want to know how to rebuild a rare European engine, you’ll need to be a student and head to the McPherson Library and read the physical manual.

“We’re working on an engine project or something. And they’ll ask me, ‘Well, what about this torque or what are these specs?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ Look it up. And so they pull out their phone. I go, no, no. ‘Look it up in the manual, look it up in the book,'” Goodwin said. “These cars are one-of-a-kind.”

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There are currently 23 cars being worked on within the college currently in various stages of restoration, ranging from an extremely rare 1956 Austin-Healey 100M Le Mans to a 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300S Cabriolet to a 1967 Mini Cooper S. After the cars are completed, some are sold (with the proceeds going directly back into the program) while others join the school’s classic car collection that travels the country in shows and parades.

A 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300 S Cabriolet from McPherson College at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California, on August 20, 2022. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Looking to the future, the School of Automotive Studies hopes to double in size in the next decade. Gutierrez says she will expand the facilities to accommodate the expected growth, as well as adding new specialized programs in areas such as automotive digital media and engineering.

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Although the money can be good and job security seems stable, for students at McPherson it’s all about passion.

“You have to do it for the love of it. But it’s a legitimate way to make a living, you won’t starve, and this job will be safe for a long time, especially if you’re good at it,” Goodwin said. “I’ve always been able to feed my family.”