2024 - From Student to Staff: Jay Conglis

Jay Conglis, a senior graphic designer at Elgin Community College (ECC), didn’t have a linear path to higher education. He attended ECC on two separate occasions, with two universities mixed in. He first came to ECC after high school for familiar reasons; it was a local school where he could save some money while attending. After two years, Conglis earned his Associate of Arts degree and transferred to Illinois State University (ISU) as a fine arts major.

“I went to study graphic design, and I was the last of my generation to learn the old school way, the non-digital way,” Conglis said. “I hated everything about it. It was all by hand and so tedious; you had to be really precise. It just didn’t seem very creative.”

During that time, Conglis experienced what he’d like to describe as an existential crisis. “I had the realization that a career in the arts was going to be really hard to make a living with,” Conglis said. “At that point, I just wanted a career path where I could graduate, start working, earn a living, and start a life for myself.”

Conglis left ISU and transferred to Northern Illinois University (NIU) for their art illustration program, attempting to remain where his passion lay, but a different route. After a semester at NIU, he again felt how difficult it might be to earn a living and lost his desire to continue pursuing it. This led Conglis to come back to ECC and take a 180 – he intended to major in something in the medical field.

“I was always good at science,” Conglis said. “In high school, I never really applied myself; I just did enough to graduate. But I always got A’s in Science, so I started taking lab and anatomy classes.”

In addition to his new course load, Conglis was required to take an elective, so he went back to his roots and took a graphic design class, but this time, it was computerized. Having never even turned on a Macbook in his life, he dived in with the help of an amazing instructor.

“Connie Orbeta was my teacher, and she was the best teacher I’ve ever had,” Conglis said. “She was awesome, and I just took to the class. I remember thinking that if this is the future in graphic design, I could do this. This form of graphic design really unleashes your creative instincts without having to deal with the tediousness of before.”

With a great teacher and clicking with this new work, Conglis took every graphic design class ECC had to offer before he transferred back to ISU to finish his fine arts degree. During his second time at ISU, he also learned some animation programs, which reignited his passion for traditional illustration work. 

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design, Conglis went where the talent and jobs in his field were: Los Angeles, California.

“I really wanted to find work in traditional drawing animation,” Conglis said. “If I had a crystal ball at that time, I would have seen that I should have focused on 3D animation. In a few years, everything was 3D animation.”

After his latest path began to waver, Conglis decided to come back home. Browsing the job ads in the paper, he noticed the ECC Marketing and Communications department was hiring a graphic designer. After locking in the job, Conglis has remained a Spartan for the past 24 years.

“I never thought I was going to stay here this long. I always thought I would try California again,” Conglis said. “But, I’m glad I did. If I could say something to my younger self, it would be not to worry. That it’s all going to get better, and it is. Right now, this feels like a golden era with the people I work with.”

In addition to steady work in the career that initially sparked in Connie’s graphic design class, Conglis also had the privilege of meeting his wife at ECC. Spotting her first as a student in the culinary arts program, they later connected at the gym, finding out they graduated the same year at the same high school.

“It is truly a blessing I stayed here this long because now my wife can do what she’s dreamed of doing, and she has had that freedom,” Conglis said. “That makes me feel good.”

Although Conglis’ job keeps him behind his computer screen, you’ve seen him through his work. His talent and creativity have flown throughout the walls of ECC and beyond for 24 years and continue to be stronger than ever.