Skip To Main Content

University of Illinois Athletics

Events Slider

CHAMPAIGN, IL- October 02, 2023 - Illinois Senior Academic Counselor Trajuan Briggs headshot taken at the Bielfeldt Athletics Administration Building in Champaign, IL. Photo By Kevin Snyder

Trajuan Briggs

Began at Illinois:
September 2022

Education: 
In May 2014, Briggs earned his bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of New Mexico while becoming a 2-year letterwinner for the Lobos football team. Briggs graduated Summa Cum Laude with a master's degree in physical education with a concentration in sport administration from the University of New Mexico in 2019.

Responsibilities: 
Briggs currently serves as a Senior Academic Counselor for the Fighting Illini athletics program where he assists student-athletes in balancing the academic, athletic, and social responsibilities associated with Division I athletics in the Big Ten Conference. In addition, his role focuses on evaluating continuing eligibility, tracking academic progress, and assisting in recruiting student-athletes. He works primarily with women's basketball, men's tennis, and track and field/cross country.

Past Experience:
Prior to coming to Illinois, Briggs was hired as an athletics Academic Counselor in February 2022 at the University of Southern California. In his role,Briggs worked with the Trojans' women's water polo, beach volleyball, and football programs, in creating academic plans towards graduation, degree requirements, and monitoring student’s academic success. Briggs was previously an eligibility and academic specialist and was promoted to the academic counselor and coordinator of student-athlete development in July 2021 at the University of New Orleans. In his role at UNO, Briggs provided academic counseling, coordinating, and implemented study hall, tutoring and individual meetings for assigned teams, and coordinating life skills, career development and the Privateer community outreach programming for the department. He also worked with the Privateers 4 Equality program, the school’s student-run social justice committee. Prior to coming to the University of New Orleans, Briggs worked as a research and development coordinator with Prime U in Dallas, Texas. Briggs launched research projects and developed baseline assessments and impact measure reports to provide analytics on the development of programming. He also worked as a consultant for athletic departments and provided recommendations based on research.

Personal: 
Briggs is from Pacoima, Calif., and has one 5-year old son, Isaiah Briggs. Briggs is passionate about student-athletes' holistic development, grilling, and teaching. He also has a scholarship at the University of New Mexico called The Trajuan Briggs Community IMPACT Scholarship, which focuses on assisting collegiate students that want to assist their community through service, uplift, and education.