On April 19, members of the Chanticleer Intelligence Brief (CIB) met at the Coastal Science Center Complex for yet another CIB Awards Ceremony. This is a longstanding CIB tradition that marks the culmination of the semester. The event aims to recognize the hard work of CIB recruits, members, analysts, and senior analysts, and to renew everyone’s pledge to make the organization even stronger in the coming year.

This semester’s celebration marked the 15th CIB Awards Ceremony, in the tradition of the group’s first-ever ceremony, which was held in May of 2016. The membership of the CIB remained solid throughout this semester, and much solid work was completed by members at all levels of the organization. The Awards Ceremony provided the CIB with an opportunity to recognize a number of individuals and groups, who did outstanding work in the past several months.

During the ceremony, the CIB recognized its most promising members based on the consistency of their work this semester. The head of each membership desk nominated a member for the Regional Expert Award, which is given for distinguished semester-long performance as a CIB member. The award winners were: Mason Marlowe (Americas, 2nd semester in a row); Ellie Simpson (Europe); Nathan Wynkoop (Russia); Daniel Gehman (Africa); Megan Shoop (Asia); Hannah Albert (Middle East); Katelyn Bredow (China); and Jaime Fleming (Cyber/Transnational).

Additionally, the editors of the CIB’s Weekly Intelligence Brief publication recognized one of the contributors this semester whose work for the publication represents the highest standards of content selection, analysis and written delivery. The award recipient was Ellie Simpson (Europe).

The organization recognized its five Critical Mission Center (CMC) directors, who served in the Intelligence Internship this semester. These are: McKenzie Tsiantoulas (CMC WHISKEY), Hannah Flick (CMC KILO), Alejandro Olivares (CMC FOXTROT), Grey Thompson (CMC ECHO), and Sierra Mason (CMC SIERRA). These Directors were surrounded by 9 Critical Mission Center Support Officers, who are now eligible to complete this internship in a subsequent semester.

The following awards were presented to the following CMC participants: The Highest Quality Oral Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall delivery of oral intelligence briefs, went to McKenzie Tsiantoulas (WHISKEY). The Highest Quality Written Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall written reports, went to Sierra Mason (SIERRA). The Highest Quality Current Intelligence Dissemination Award, presented to the CMC Support Officer with the best oral delivery to the National Security Agency, was presented to Alejandro Olivares (FOXTROT). Finally, the Critical Mission Center Support Excellence Award, which recognizes the two most valuable CMC Support Officers of the semester, went to Hannah Albert (WHISKEY) and Brandon Macallair (SIERRA).

On behalf of the CIB Executive Team, CIB Faculty Mentor Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis recognized the longstanding work of our graduating Executive Officers, Sophie Sherwood, Kristian Nesheim, Ryan Freyland and Abigail McClean. Lukas Delaney, who is also graduating later this year, was presented with the CIB Achievement Award. This recognition is offered by the CIB Executive Team to an individual member of the organization who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in contributing to the CIB’s efforts.

The final recognition of the evening went to the CIB Europe Desk, headed by Sarantis Markaris, who stood in for CIB Officer Sierra Mason, while she has been completing a State Department internship in Washington, DC. For the second semester in a row, the Europe desk won this semester’s CIB Weekly News Trivia Quiz. Europe placed just a few points ahead of the Americas Desk, which came in second, again for the second consecutive semester. The Middle East Desk won this semester’s Cool List Award.

The CIB wishes to thank all of its Executive Team officers, its senior analysts and analysts, as well as its recruits, for a highly successful semester. Our organization looks forward to continuing to strengthen our work and output in coming semesters. We also want to congratulate our graduating members and wish them our very best as they embark on their next steps in life.