By Sarah Kyo, Web Communications Specialist

A group photo with a Communicative Disorders and Sciences grad and her family. Photo by Christina Olivas.

Graduations often bring family members together, and the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences Convocation was no exception. Photo by Christina Olivas.

(This week, SJSU Today’s small but mighty band of writers and photographers took a peek at graduation receptions and convocations campuswide so we could share with you the excitement of the more than 8,000 members of the Class of 2012. We’ll post more photos on Facebook.)

A blue-and-yellow candy buffet greeted guests at the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences convocation on May 25. Once inside Morris Dailey Auditorium, graduates’ families and friends faced a stage with rows of silver chairs. Soon they would be face to face with their loved ones, who were dressed in caps and gowns.

“They are looking good, aren’t they?” said Department Chair Michael Kimbarow of this year’s graduates.

One student speaker, master’s degree candidate Jessica Abawag, said she and her fellow classmates endured this journey at SJSU for the same purpose.

“We are here to change the lives of others,” she said.

A fitting representation of why these Spartans pursued this field was keynote speaker Lateef McLeod, a poet who’s also a grant writer and blogger for the United Cerebral Palsy of the Golden Gate.

McLeod, who has cerebral palsy, gave his speech with an iPad app called Proloquo2Go. The app transformed a text file he originally typed on his Macbook into an audio recording with a male human voice.

He talked about the different Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices he had used throughout his life and the people who have worked with him. He encouraged the graduates to listen to their future clients.

“It is ultimately their communication that you’re facilitating,” McLeod said.

His speech concluded with one of his poems, “Wall,” to illustrate the importance of the work that the graduates will soon be doing.

“I yell myself hoarse like a bullfrog / but I cannot get my family and friends to get close to me / so they really know / my dreams, thoughts, desires, and feelings,” he recited. “I shiver behind this clear wall / and wait for someone to notice me / wait for a chance to speak.”