Orange Coast College grad named first Phi Theta Kappa International Poet Laureate

“Like the smell of our mother’s skin, our land stays with us.”

So begins the opening lines of “Immigrant’s Song,” a poem penned by Orange Coast College alum Federico De Palma that recently earned the Huntington Beach resident several noteworthy distinctions.

A 37-year-old soccer coach whose family is Italian but who was born in Buenos Aires and spent the first 14 years of his life there before himself moving to Italy, De Palma came to the United States in 2013 with his wife. They were in search of new horizons.

He coached club soccer for years and eventually took a position coaching varsity soccer, cross country and track and field at Glen A. Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights, where he quickly developed a bond with students and learned he had a knack for teaching.

“I discovered the pleasure of working with kids — it was just phenomenal,” he recalled in a recent interview. “My friend told me, whatever you do it’s important for you to be in a classroom, because that’s where you can help kids.”

Federico De Palma, who was born to Italian parents in Argentina and came to the U.S. in 2013, wrote the poem “Immigrant’s Song” after pondering his family’s lineage.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

De Palma came to Orange Coast College in 2019 and immediately began earning credits toward becoming a teacher. He joined Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for two-year colleges, looking for any chance to connect and network with others during a time of pandemic closures.

As he worked, attended school and raised a newborn son Dylan with wife Silvia, De Palma wrote poetry in English, his third language after Italian and Spanish, as a personal project. He had no idea his writings would ever gain him recognition.

“I never expected my poetry, quite honestly, would win an award,” he said. “Especially their being in English. It’s not my first language — it’s not even my second.”

Yet, that’s precisely what happened. Earlier this year, De Palma learned of “Nota Bene,” an annual literary journal of juried writings from PTK students across the globe. Eager to engage in honor society life, he submitted five poems for consideration.

“Immigrant’s Song” was not only selected among 440 entries for the 2021 publication, but was recognized as the most outstanding poem, which earned De Palma a $1,000 scholarship and led to his being named the society’s International Poet Laureate, a new distinction created this year.

Phi Theta Kappa President and Chief Executive Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner explained in an email “Nota Bene” provides a national platform for authors to share their work with a wider audience. She called De Palma’s poem “a moving example of the talent that our nation’s community college students possess.

“Students like Federico make me proud to serve in this role,” she continued. “Not only is he bright, motivated and hardworking, he is an eloquent storyteller — he represents the very best of Phi Theta Kappa.”

De Palma said “Immigrant’s Song” came to him as he watched his son sleeping and realized the United States would be his child’s homeland. In a moment, he was struck by the thought that he and his son had different native ties.

“I was just looking at him, and I was missing home,” he recalled. “I never knew before you could feel so sad and happy at the same time, that you could be feeling away from home … and feeling out of place, but also be exactly where you need to be.”

It’s not dissimilar to the experience his own father, who grew up in Italy but raised a family on foreign shores, must have had raising him, De Palma surmises.

“My dad must have felt like that looking at me,” he said. “I was the son born an immigrant in Argentina — so it was interesting to see how that cycle was going for us and my family.”

Now studying at UCI and majoring in Spanish with a minor in education, De Palma is staying involved with the OCC campus in Costa Mesa, where he plans to take French classes.

Those who know him, like retired Wilson High School athletic director Mark Fessenden, who saw De Palma’s talent coaching students and encouraged him to pursue education as a profession, say the sky’s the limit.

“Coaching is just teaching on the field, and he was consistent beyond belief, he was fair and had a great sense of sportsmanship and doing the right thing,” Fessenden said. “He understands it’s not all about the score — it’s about character, integrity and a work ethic.

“I realized after seeing his character that this is a special individual.”

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