Joe Battista

  • Battista: Who to Believe?

    in , ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    Halloween 2025 has come and gone but it reminded me of one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on a naïve audience. On Oct. 30, 1938, just over 87 years ago, a then 23-year-old Orson Welles used a relatively new technology (for the masses) to put fear into the entire nation with his CBS radio broadcast of…

  • A Memorable Celebration of Life for a True Servant Leader

    in ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    It was the perfect fall weekend to travel into Happy Valley to get together with friends and family, including my two oldest children, as it was “Family Weekend” at Penn State. The leaves were changing colors, the sun was shining brightly, only a few wispy clouds were in the sky and a cool breeze was…

  • Battista: Make It Happen

    in ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the importance of taking time to go on family adventures, just after we spent nine days out west with our three adult children.  Previous to that, I wrote about my great friend and hockey teammate Tim Holdcroft, who passed away unexpectedly at just 62, too young an…

  • Battista: Family Adventures Are Priceless

    in ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    If I could do it all over again, the advice I would give my younger self as a parent would have been to stretch our family budget, just a little more, and find a way to take the family on a few more adventures.  Having just returned from an amazing nine-day trip out west to…

  • Battista: God Just Doesn’t Make Them Any Better Than Our Friend Tim

    in , ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    The State College community lost one of its best residents last week, someone who many of you probably didn’t even know.  His name was Tim Holdcroft, and he was the epitome of an unsung hero in life, with family, at work, in his church and in the community. His untimely death has devastated family and…

  • Battista: Campus Memories

    in , ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    Almost everyone has some fond memories of campus experiences, whether you’ve graduated from high school, trade school, college or military boot camp (well, maybe not fond memories of boot camp). If you’re a Penn State Alumni Association member and receive the Penn Stater Magazine, you have undoubtedly enjoyed the periodic articles about campus memories.  Most…

  • Battista: Service to Others Is a Mindset, and a Gift

    in ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    We just completed our eighth year of Overspeed Hockey camps in Sun Valley, Idaho. That’s 16 weeks of service to over 700 kids predominantly from Idaho but with some coming from Washington, Oregon, Montana, California, Utah, Wyoming and even as far away as Florida, It’s a great camp in a gorgeous area of the country. …

  • Destinations: Dreams and Realities

    in ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    I recently became one of the newest members of the Medicare Club. My 87-year-old mother called to wish me happy birthday and said, “My baby is 65!”  No way am I 65, I thought. Old people are 65! I feel like I’m living my best life right now and suddenly it dawned on me that…

  • Battista: There Is Always Hope

    in ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    If you follow my columns, you know that I gave up all of my social media, except for LinkedIn, which I have only kept for business purposes. My self-imposed digital detox has been in place since Christmas break of 2020 (You can read about it here). I am a big advocate of “JOMO” – the…

  • For the Pure Joy of It

    in , ,

    —

    by

    Joe Battista

    I was recently back in Happy Valley for a few days to do a little work at our family townhouse and to facilitate a two-day Pragmatic Passion training program for Dallastown Area School District’s Leadership Team at the newly renovated Nittany Lion Inn. While in town, I had the pleasure of getting to see an…