As an innovator and entrepreneur, McClendon is passionate about STEM(Science,Technology, Engineering,Mathematics) learning and he speaks to students around the state about technology leading to future jobs in Kansas. He tells students that “whatever your passion, learn to code and you’ll be more valuable to that passion and those that share it.”

McClendon spoke with The Salina Post about coming to Central High and speaking with engineering students at the STEM lab. When asked what prompted a young man from Lawrence, Kansas to dream so big and do amazing things like being a Co-Founder of Google Earth his response was,”there really was this sort of love of video games back in the early eighties. They were just coming out and they were the first really interesting computer graphics of any sort that inspired me to say I want to work on things that produce that. I actually started wanting to build video game machines, but I eventually got a job building high end graphic supercomputers that were used to develop movie animations more than game animations.”

He was asked if young people that he has spoken with are interested in all the areas of discipline with STEM learning or are some more focused in one area over another? His response was,”it’s always a mix. I mean, some people want to be a graphic designer or some people want to be computer scientists, some people want to be biomedical engineers, other folks want to get into medicine. They are just hearing about these projects and how even software can make a bigger impact on the future of medicine more than just being the doctor. And so I sort of make the argument that whatever you want to do in life, computer science will be having an opportunity to make a bigger impact.”