our 2024
Piston Scholars
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20 aspiring technicians received scholarships.
Creating More Collector Car Technicians
We’re helping young car enthusiasts turn their interest into careers.
The shortage of qualified technicians and restoration specialists is the biggest challenge facing the collector car industry. So we are setting out to change this. By making skilled trade education and hands-on training more accessible for more people, the Piston Foundation aims to help build a new and diverse generation of tradespeople in the collector car industry.
Scholarship and Apprenticeship Programs
The Piston Fund
Skilled Trade Education Scholarships
The Piston Foundation helps students take their first steps towards a skilled trade career. If you are attending, accepted, or enrolled in a 2- or 4-year automotive technology program and have a strong interest in working with collector cars, a Piston Fund scholarship can help make school more affordable.
The Piston Academy
Apprenticeships in Collector Car Restoration
The Piston Academy helps qualified technicians learn the skills and craft of collector car restoration and service by apprenticing with today’s master craftspeople. The Academy provides apprenticeship placements at leading restoration shops, a hands-on learning plan, mentoring, and a training grant.
From the Piston Blog
While her classmates at McPherson College want to restore classic cars, Annika is restoring antique farm tractors. Known as “That Tractor Chick”, this Piston Scholar is charting a path for herself and other women entering the industry.
The Piston Foundation Expands Its Board of Directors
The Piston Foundation has expanded its board of directors to add expertise and experience that will help the organization create more education and career opportunities for the next generation of skilled automotive technicians, and expand the resources and scope of the foundation’s programs.
Piston Awards 20 Scholarships to its Fall Class of 2024 Scholars
The Piston Foundation is proud to announce the Fall 2024 class of Piston Scholars. Each of these scholars is a bright and exciting talent with a passion for collector cars and the drive to learn the skills of automotive restoration. Like other Piston Scholars before them, these aspiring technicians will join the collector car community as part of a new generation ready to preserve the past and build the future.
Join Us
Make a Donation
Give to what you love by making a gift that helps the next generation access the education and training they need to begin a career as a classic car technician.
Sponsor a Scholar
Piston Foundation scholarships are awarded to aspiring technicians to help them begin an auto restoration career. Give to the car culture you love.
Donate a Car
Turn your collector car into education and hands-on training for aspiring collector car technicians. Your car can change lives. 100% goes to our scholarship program.
Community Partners
Financial Transparency
We are proud to have received a Platinum Transparency seal from Candid in our third year of operations. We embrace our responsibility to steward the gifts of our donors for the greatest possible impact.
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