Wake Up with Purpose!: What I've Learned in My First Hundred Years

by Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, Seth Davis (With)

Overview

Known to millions as simply "Sister Jean," the Loyola Chicago matriarch and college basketball icon invites you into her remarkable memoir filled with history, wonder, and common-sense wisdom for this century and beyond. As Sister Jean wisely says, "I've seen so many changes in the last 102 years, but the important things remain the same."

Part life story, part philosophy text, and part spiritual guide, Sister Jean's wit, wisdom, and common sense has broad appeal and application that transcends religious creed, belief, and even feelings on Loyola's basketball team.

Along with her collaborator Seth Davis, an award-winning writer, broadcaster and New York Times best-selling author, Wake Up with Purpose! lets you experience:

• Sister Jean's words and her spirit.
• her sharp sense of humor.
• life lessons gleaned from one hundred years of living.
• universal themes that connect us all.
• priceless wisdom.

The driving force inside Wake Up with Purpose! is the narrative of Sister Jean's fascinating life—from teaching at a Catholic school during the Second World War to serving on a Chicago college campus in the sixties and beyond to cheering from the sidelines of a men's basketball tournament in March 2018.

As you learn about Sister Jean's century-long life, you'll feel just like the Loyola students do when they knock on her office door, plop down in a chair, and ask if she would have time to chat, an activity that she still does daily.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400333516
Publisher:	Harper Select
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	40,214
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt is a religious sister of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She has spent her entire adult life working as a teacher, administrator, and volunteer, first at elementary and grade schools in Chicago and Los Angeles, and later at Mundelein College and Loyola University. Since 1994, Sister Jean, as she is known, has served as team chaplain for Loyola’s men’s basketball team. She gained national – and international – fame in 2018 when the Ramblers went on a Cinderella run to the Final Four. Sister Jean has been a household name ever since. In August 2022 Sister Jean celebrated her 103rd birthday.

Seth Davis is an award-winning college basketball studio analyst for CBS Sports and a senior writer for college basketball at The Athletic. Since 2004 he has been a mainstay of CBS and Turner Sports coverage of the NCAA tournament. Seth is the author of eight books, including the New York Times bestsellers Wooden: A Coach’s Life and When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball; the memoir Equinunk, Tell Your Story: My Return to Summer Camp; and The Soccer Prince, a novel for middle school readers. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Melissa, their sons, Zachary, Noah, and Gabriel, and their Goldendoodles, Clarence and Sadie.

Editorial Reviews

The amount of history the memoir encompasses is staggering, from the dropping of the atomic bomb to Black Lives Matter protests. Throughout the book, Sister Jean intersperses lessons and advice that helped her meet a century's worth of challenges and change. She preaches tolerance, diversity, open dialogue, face-to-face communication, morning prayer and waking up with purpose. They are her secrets to a long life well-lived, easy and applicable to anyone looking to have a life even half as long, full and meaningful as hers has been.

America Magazine

2022-12-20
The 103-year-old nun, famed for her courtside presence at multiple NCAA men’s basketball tournaments, serves up anecdotally driven lessons for life.

“Thank you, God, for all our blessings and the chance to serve You. But goodness gracious, can’t we make March Madness just once?” So writes Sister Jean, as she’s known, who doesn’t shy away from opining about the mixed quality of the coaches with whom she’s worked as the longtime chaplain for the Loyola Chicago Ramblers. Neither does she shy from puns or pronouncements on all sorts of matters, from the utility of the iPad for studying Scripture to the power of positive thinking and even self-praise (“As I nod off, I pat myself on the back for all the good things I’ve done that day”). As the author writes, assisted by longtime CBS college basketball guru Davis, those good things include simply waking up, purpose or no. Clearly beloved by Loyola’s students and players—who, she notes, are religiously diverse, with a large Muslim population—Sister Jean is both deeply religious and fond of poking fun at life’s foibles, not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Charles Barkley. On that note, she is solid in her courtside commentary, as when she breaks down some of the key moments in the team’s historic run to the Final Four in 2018. Throughout, she acknowledges that her constant presence next to the bench has made her an icon, though she pokes fun at herself as well, saying, “Let’s face it, people love little old ladies!” Clearly people love underdogs, too, and though Loyola Chicago went for three decades without making it to March Madness, they’ve had a good run in the last few years thanks to strong coaching and, of course, excellent players.

A pleasure for college basketball fans, especially those of religious inclination.

Kirkus Reviews