The most wrenching phone call Connie Rice received during her decades as a civil-rights activist and high-powered trial lawyer came from the manager of a Watts convenience store at 2 a.m.

There'd been yet another gang shooting at the infamous Jordan Downs housing project, and the police had rounded up all the adults in a single family. But the authorities had left a 7-year-old boy, Tommy, and his baby brother behind. No one called a social worker.

Two days passed before the boy ventured out of his abandoned apartment with the toddler and headed to the corner market.

"It was the store manager who called me to say, 'Tommy has stolen diapers, and he is changing his baby brother in the aisle,'" Rice said.

That event took place more than 25 years ago, she said. "But we still have children who are completely abandoned. Children who are child soldiers in a first-world city. Children who are taught to kill before they are taught to love."

The keynote speaker for the USC School of Social Work's 90th commencement ceremony on May 14, Rice recounted the tragic as a call to action to the 312 Master of Social Work graduates and five doctoral graduates sitting before her in fold-out chairs at the Lyon Center on a balmy Friday morning.

The co-founder and co-director of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles—a non-profit civil rights and policy advocacy group focusing on social justice for underserved populations—Rice's impressive resume includes a landmark case on behalf of the Bus Riders Union that resulted in a mandate that more than $2 billion be spent to improve the Los Angeles bus system and a stint serving as counsel to help spearhead the Watts gang truce in the 1990s.

But speaking to the Class of 2010, Rice said it was social workers —not lawyers—who could prevent another generation of "Tommy's."

"We stand on the cusp of changing that dismal reality," Rice said. "And it is you—you are the women and the men who will be the first responders. You will be the first to see what is really happening."

A black belt in tae kwan do, Rice also told the graduates they will need to find their own warrior spirit every day as they fight for the disenfranchised against those happy with the status quo.

Turning to "Star Wars" for a little help, Rice had this advice: "When you enter the death star of bureaucracy, do not let them crush you, become a Jedi and aim your spaceship right into the middle… Don't let lazy, inept, insecure, whining bureaucrats destroy your spirit. Do not let anyone tell you how to see yourself or define you," she said, to raucous hoots and applause.

The theme of this year's graduation ceremony was "Change, Service and Justice," a title that referenced the school's newest sub-concentration in military social work. The first 12 students to complete this coursework received their MSW degrees.

Jose Coll, chair of the military social work program, announced those graduates.

"Their commitment to serving those who serve our armed forces and their families demonstrates their dedication and honor, he said. "Their efforts in helping military personnel and veterans stretch from Mira Mar Air Station in San Diego to the Los Angeles Unified School District, where our students have assisted with children with deployed family members."

The 2010 student speaker was Jennifer Gebauer, a former police dispatcher and 911operator whose experience in the police department led her to return to school and work with mentally ill prison inmates.

Gebauer asked her fellow graduates to be ever mindful of the great lineage of professionals who have come before and to not get bogged down in the status quo out in the real world.

"Let's continue to fight on for change, service and justice and for the defining moments that contribute to the tapestry of our profession," she said. "Let's not wait for change to come, for an improved economy or for permission."

Dean Marilyn Flynn also congratulated the Class of 2010 award winners, along with faculty award recipients, who were acknowledged individually during an earlier ceremony.

The award winners were as follows:

Gladys M. Salit Award
Maral Karaccusian and Zuleika Andrade

California Society for Clinical Social Work Alexander Foundation Award for Clinical Excellence
Kate Smiley

Sterling C. Franklin Award for Distinguished USC School of Social Work Faculty
Lawrence Palinkas

Hutto Patterson Foundation Award for Distinguished USC School of Social Work Faculty
Annalisa Enrile

USC School of Social Work Award for Excellence in Leadership and Creativity
Esther Gilles

Jane Addams Faculty Award
Margarita Artavia