On April 17, 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 academic year.

This semester’s celebration marked the 17th CIB Awards Ceremony, in the tradition of the group’s first-ever ceremony, which was held in May 2016. The membership of the CIB remained prolific 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: Sophia Batchelder (Americas); Lex Martin (Europe); Preston Martz (Russia); Aubrey Belanger (Africa, 3rd semester in a row); Alex Wiggins (Asia); Metan Patel (Middle East, 2nd semester in a row); Navaeh Deichert (China); and Lilyanne Sweat (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 Lex Martin (Americas).

The organization recognized its two Critical Mission Center (CMC) directors, who served as Applied Intelligence Project Interns this semester. These are: Joshua Koval (CMC ZULU), and Megan Marsh (CMC FOXTROT). These Directors were surrounded by 13 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 Applied Intelligence Project participants: The Highest Quality Oral Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall delivery of oral intelligence briefs, went to Samuel Luckett (Foxtrot). The Support Excellence Award, presented to the Senior Analysts with the most dedicated overall contribution to the project, went to Madison Conway and Nevaeh Deichert.

On behalf of the CIB Executive Team, CIB Faculty Mentor Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis recognized the longstanding work of our graduating Executive Officers, Scott Boster, Jaime Fleming, Brendan Valcone, and Sarantis Markaris. We also gave our heartfelt thanks to two CIB executives who stepped down from their role: Hannah Albert and McKenzie Tsiantoulas. The latter (pictured) was also 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 Americas Desk, headed by Scott Boster. For the second semester in a row, the Americas desk won this semester’s CIB Weekly News Trivia Quiz. Americas placed just a few points ahead of the Europe Desk, which came in second, again for the second consecutive semester. The Africa Desk won this semester’s Cool List Award for the second semester in a row.

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.