Houston Rockets NBA Star Jeremy Lin Set To Address 18,000 Under-Privileged Youths In Taipei

Houston Rocket point guard Jeremy Lin will be traveling to Taipei, Taiwan to address the "Dream Big, Be Yourself" evangelic conference in August.

Lin will be joined by pop stars Van Ness Wu and Jay Chou, who will share their stories of success and religion in front of over 18,000 teens  at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.

Of the 18,000 available seats, half of them have been reserved for countryside disadvantaged youths and junior high, high school, and college youths cared for by churches or ministries. The remaining 9,000 tickets will be distributed to churches throughout the country that have requested invites, with each church being able to apply for 20 tickets.

Conference organizers aim to reach socially-marginalized teens and emphasize not giving up on ones dreams despite difficult circumstances, by presenting positive role models such as Lin, Wu, and Chou.

Lin understands the importance of role models in a child's life. The Houston point guard recently launched a charitable foundation helping underprivileged children earlier this year, providing help to Workshop Houston, the Yellowstone Academy, and the Partnership for the Advancement and Immersion of Refugees (PAIR), back in February.

"I've learned to understand what it means to have a platform and how to use that the right way," Lin said at the foundation launch party. "I'm still learning what that means every day. I feel like this is a step forward in being able to use the attention that [NBA players] are given from society to be able to bring it upon other people in need. I figure, if you've got a lot of cameras around, you might as well say something worthwhile."

Lin, the NBA's first American player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, hopes that visits such as his trip to Taipei can help him continue to expand his charitable goals as he progresses in his NBA career.

"Somewhere, years down the road, I definitely want to make an impact within third-world countries and for our foundation to be able to do work in a lot of different areas across the world," said Lin. "This is definitely the first step."