Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Jeremy Lin Courted in YouTube Video to Speak at Stuyvesant HS Graduation

By Julie Shapiro | March 29, 2012 11:18am | Updated on March 29, 2012 11:33am

BATTERY PARK CITY — Stuyvesant High School has caught Linsanity.

Students at the elite Battery Park City school, which is 73 percent Asian, are begging superstar Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin to speak at their June graduation.

In a video posted on YouTube this week, Stuyvesant's seniors put the full-court press on Lin, saying that his extraordinary winning streak and rise to fame pushed them to work harder in sports and at school.

"Your story is an inspiration to us all, and it would be an honor if you could come down and spend an afternoon with us sharing some of your words of wisdom," Eric Han, the senior class president, told Lin in the video.

Han said he polled more than 800 seniors on who the graduation speaker should be, and Lin was by far the top choice.

Stanley Teitel, the school's principal, is a fan as well, according to the Daily News, which first reported the video campaign.

"Jeremy Lin is a role model for many of them," Teitel told the Daily News. "We hope he accepts our invitation.”

Lin, the first American-born NBA player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent, is also a graduate of Harvard University — a combination of academic and athletic prowess that many Stuyvesant students said motivated them.

"You're an inspiration to Asian basketball players like myself, on the court and in the classroom," Stuyvesant student Alex Kwong said in the video. "So, please, come through and be our graduation speaker."

A Knicks representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.