Meet Phil Hill Scholar: Jacqueline “Jackie” Gullion
December 1, 2020
It was obvious from an early age that Jackie Gullion was going to find a way to work on cars. When her mom bought her fingernail polish, Jackie used it to paint her Hot Wheels.
“I had a whole collection of Hot Wheels that I played with all the time,” she says. “Fast-forward to high school when my dad told me I had to figure out my future: I knew I really wanted to work on cars.”
As a child, Jackie had attended car shows with her dad, who often showed his 1971 Chevy C/10. In high school, Jackie enrolled in an auto body painting and refinishing class, then convinced her dad to let her repaint that beloved car. When she started looking for post-graduation options, Jackie, who hails from Fremont, California, found McPherson College in Kansas.
There, Jackie, now a Junior, serves as president of the C.A.R.S. Club, the automotive restoration student organization, and is a member of Rogue Writers, the creative writing club on campus. Naturally, she loves the fact that every automobile has a story to tell: “Classic car collectors are important because they preserve not only the vehicles, but the stories that are attached to them.”
She also enjoys the creativity that surrounds her in the auto industry. “I love rat rods!” she says. “The artistic brain [needed] to create a ratty rat rod is something you don’t get to see every day. Anything out of the ordinary and rare always grabs my attention.”
While at McPherson, Jackie has continued to develop her skills in the area she first loved — paint — but she has also found a new passion.
“Sanding is relaxing for me; I listen to music and become one with the work,” says Jackie. “I’ve also discovered my love of upholstery. Feeling the different types of materials, watching my hand guide it through the machine, hypnotized by the sound of the machine as it punctures each stitch — it all gives me an adrenaline rush.”
This past summer, Jackie was an intern at Gladstone Auto Trim in Gladstone, Missouri, where she repaired vehicle seats and boat seats and helped make booths for restaurants. After college, she now hopes to pursue a career in upholstery and “create an impact on my community with positivity and joy.”
