Page 6 - JobReady: March 2018

Returning to Pay It Forward: ACTI Auto Collision Instructors
Prepare the Next Generation of Professionals

mid the productive ACTI started shortly after he the field, Tunnicliff said he ran
clanging and banging turned twenty years old. A work across a posting for an auto
A heard throughout the accident caused him to lose part collision repair instructor at
garage at the Arkansas Career of his leg. He learned about ACTI. He felt a nudge to go
Training Institute (ACTI), there the Hot Springs facility through back to the place that gave him
are two voices that can still be a vocational rehabilitation so much.
heard over the noise – providing counselor. “The students at the
instruction and direction to a “When I got here, there were time, they referred to us as
group of students. people who didn’t have any legs rehabbers. That’s fine. I’ll take
These students are learning or maybe one arm. I realized that. I’m more of a recycled
from Walter Holley and David really quickly that I didn’t have rehabber. I was out there, done
Tunnicliff, two auto collision any problems,” Holley said. it, and came back. I’m proud
repair gurus who not only know Holley said he left with more of what we do here,” Tunnicliff
the industry but they also know than just the skills he needed for said.
how to excel in the industry with his career. Holley and Tunnicliff said the
a disability. “I learned how to walk really opportunity they have now not
Both Holley and Tunnicliff well. When I got to come to the only shows that they believe in
graduated from ACTI training area, the people were the mission of ACTI, but they
(then called Hot Springs genuine, and the instructors also want to prove to students
Rehabilitation Center) and were solid,” he said. that a disability should not stop
pursued careers in the auto On the other side of the them.
collision industry. garage, Tunnicliff has a similar “You have obstacles daily to
“It’s a homecoming. This story of perseverance. He let you know that you’re really
system has changed a bit and signed up for the Army but was wasting your time, but you stay
faces have changed, but the denied due to his being deaf in focused and keep pushing and
needs remain the same,” Holley his right ear. the longer you’re here, the more
said. “That really hurt my you learn, it will one day come
Holley, who became a feelings,” he recounted. to fruition that you can actually
member of the ACTI faculty After working “a couple of do this type of work on a
in late 2017, went to Garland, dead-end jobs,” he heard about professional level,” Holley said.
Texas, after he graduated from the vocational rehabilitation Students like Hayden Davis
ACTI in 1985. He moved back facility in Hot Springs. He had are listening and looking.
to Arkansas in the early nineties worked in some repair shops, “We have different
and opened a repair shop with so it was fitting for him to study disabilities, but it doesn’t
his wife. the field. change the way we do our work.
“I came to here to teach “I always wanted to get Everyone can learn. Sometimes
these young men and women to the point where I made there’s a bump in the road, but
and start them at an elementary real money. I completed the we learn to get around that,”
stage – reading instructions and program and worked in the Davis said.
listening to [their] instructors,” field for almost twelve years,”
Holley said. Tunnicliff said.
Holley’s journey through And after twelve years in

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