The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2017 55 AFSA NEWS Professional Excellence: 2016 Sinclaire Language Awards Recipients Honored The American Foreign Service Association takes great pride in recognizing professional excellence within the Foreign Service, including the mas- tery and professional utiliza- tion of languages—a vital skill to acquire for a successful Foreign Service career. This year, we add 11 recipients to the list of over 300 members of the Foreign Service who have been so honored previ- ously. AFSA established this award program in 1982 fol- lowing a generous bequest from former Foreign Service Officer MatildaW. Sinclaire, who sought “to promote and reward superior achievement by career officers of the For- eign Service…while studying one of the Category III or IV languages under the aus- pices of the Foreign Service Institute.” Any career or career-condi- tional member of the Foreign Service from the Department of State, U.S. Agency for Inter- national Development, Foreign Commercial Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, Broad- casting Board of Governors or Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is eligible for the award. Recipients are selected by a committee comprised of the dean of the FSI School of Lan- guage studies (or his or her designee), an active member of AFSA and the AFSAAwards and Plaques Committee. Each winner receives $1,000 and a certificate of recognition. All of this year’s recipients demonstrated extraordinary skills in their chosen language at post. Their impressive feats include participating in live television interviews in Albanian, acting as master of ceremonies in Japanese for an event at the ambassador’s residence, and conducting highly technical meetings with the ministries of finance and customs and border authority in Arabic. We are pleased to announce the 2016 Sinclaire Award recipients: Gregory Aurit, Japanese Brian Corteville, Albanian Henry Yu-Hang Fung, Mongolian Jacob Glenn, Hindi Kevin O. Gonzalez, Mandarin Chinese Christopher Gooch, Nepali David H. Johnson, Farsi Mariana Neisuler, Arabic Jacob Rocca, Japanese David Wacker, Estonian James A. Waterman, Georgian For more information on the Sinclaire Awards, please contact AFSA Awards Coordinator Perri Green at green@afsa.org or (202) 719- 9700, or visit www.afsa.org/ sinclaire. n —James Schiphorst, Awards Intern