ALBANY — You’re never too old to have your parents holler your name from the audience.

Case in point: Commencement ceremonies Sunday for the class of 2008 at the University at Albany, held outdoors on the science library lawn, where the 2,789 robed graduates were surrounded by a sea of family members brandishing cameras and calling out to them to “say cheese.”

Most of the grads responded with waves, peace signs and thumbs-up, but others, clearly bleary-eyed from Saturday-night activities that didn’t include studying, ducked their heads and pretended not to hear. Not to be deterred, one mom, after being shooed away by her son, hid in the crowd and used her zoom lens.

George Pancio stood in the aisles awaiting the procession, including his grandson Timothy Pancio, who was receiving his degree in biology before going on to medical school.

“Other than the day he was born, this is the second-proudest day for me,” George Pancio said.

The Pancio family snagged folding chairs in the rows nearest the stage by arriving early. With the lion’s share of the thousands of seats on the sprawling lawns

reserved for graduates, family and friends, many stood throughout the 90-minute ceremony.

Along with the shouting, cellphones were the communication mode of choice, with grads calling and texting their parents and telling them which parking lots were full and where to meet up after the crowd dispersed.

Alix Jean’s grandmother, Renee, arrived from Haiti to celebrate the milestone with him. A sociology major, Jean is headed to law school, which means three more years of study.

“I don’t mind the extra years ahead; for me, college has been an excellent experience,” said Alix, who hails from Queens. “The campus is very welcoming and friendly. The teachers force us to take courses outside your major. I took music and actually enjoyed it.”

Members of the class of 2008, including 23 military veterans, received degrees in 50 different majors, Eighteen states and 46 countries were represented by the undergraduate class, including Japan, China and South Korea. Grads ranged in age from 20 to 53, with the average age of 23; 53 percent are women. The 164th commencement included 1,821 undergraduate and 968 graduate students, including 131 people earning their doctoral degree.

During the formal procession, children were hoisted onto shoulders, camcorders were raised overhead and a few brave people stood on their plastic folding chairs.

Guest speaker author Mary Gordon acknowledged right off the bat that she was addressing a less-than-captive audience.

“Some people I’m speaking to are out there hoping I won’t take up too much of their time, and there’s a good chance I won’t be listened to as intently as I’d like,” Gordon said.

Nonetheless, Gordon spoke humorously while imparting pearls of wisdom, urging the graduates to have patience and openness, reminding the men and women that “time in college is as much about making a life as it is about making a living.”

“Make room in your lives for regular and honored space for silence and solitude, and learn not to fear emptiness,” Gordon said. “Live your life in opposition and resistance to the sound bite. Love the questions and don’t search for answers; live your way into the answers.”

There was a long line at a flower stand near the stage, where parents chose sunflowers, carnations or pink roses for their now officially grown-up kids.

“This was 22 years in the making, and it feels awesome,” Ken Spero said about daughter Amanda Spero, who earned her degree in communications and journalism and is headed to Manhattan to work for a media company. “We’ll shed a few tears, we already have, but we’re just thrilled today.”

Other graduation ceremonies Sunday were at Siena College in Loudonville, where author Immaculee Ilibagiza gave the commencement speech. Ilibagiza spent 90 days hiding in her pastor’s 3-by-4-foot bathroom with seven other women during the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Ilibagiza and James J. Barba, president of Albany Medical Center, received honorary degrees.

Also Sunday, 136 graduates earned associate’s degrees from Maria College at ceremonies held at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center. Albany County Executive Michael G. Breslin was the keynote speaker and recipient of the McAuley Award by Maria College.