Alumna moves up at Times-Dispatch and publishes book

At 26, alumna Jessica Artur recently celebrated her second year as educational services manager for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

During that time, she has created a monthly publication for children and written a book about its characters. She began as a Times-Dispatch intern after graduating from the University of Richmond in 2004.

"People take me seriously even though I'm younger because I have an incredible background in education and English," Artur said. She majored in English and minored in elementary education.

She landed her internship with Betty White, the previous educational services manager for the Times-Dispatch, on a recommendation from her education professor, Mavis Brown.

Brown said she had a longstanding relationship with White, who told her in 2004 that she would be retiring and eventually would need a replacement to be the newspaper's link to the classroom.

"She wanted someone who could think of new and better ways to do things in the classroom," Brown said White told her.

Artur became that someone.

"The goal of my educational services department is to build future readers ... just to get them involved," Artur said.

Brown recommended Artur as an intern because she knew Artur would be staying in the area after graduation to attend graduate school at the University of Virginia. Studying reading education, Artur split her time between the main U.Va campus in Charlottesville and its Richmond satellite campus in order to intern at the Times-Dispatch for White.

"Betty [White] didn't have me interview for the internship," Artur said. "She said Dr. Brown's recommendation was enough."

Interning for 10 hours per week, Artur said she worked on curricular material and the spelling bee. She also wrote for the newspaper's Tuesday edition, which has an education section with its mini-page, a syndicated publication geared toward elementary school students.

Artur said she and White got along well because of their similar academic backgrounds.

"After I worked for her for a little," Artur said, "Betty started preparing me to take over for her job," which Artur did in February 2007.

Since then, Artur has expanded the Times-Dispatch's children's offerings from the mini-page to a monthly publication and a book.

A year and a half ago, she began developing the publication "Kids Extra," which is issued the first Tuesday of each month. As the project coordinator, Artur assembles the content, with contributions from the Children's Museum of Richmond, the Science Museum of Virginia and the Library of Virginia. She also writes a story, makes the calendar and works with department artist Tod Parkhill to design the art and games.

The magazine's main character even inspired a companion stuffed animal, Artie the Dog. Artur said Artie was not named after her, but after a reader contest entry. It won because it sounded like "RTD" -- the abbreviation for Richmond Times-Dispatch -- was easy to pronounce, didn't violate copyright laws and made sense because he was original art.

With Parkhill as the illustrator, Artur later wrote a didactic children's book, "Artie and the Red Scooter." The book teaches the moral of being selfless and happy with what you have. The Times-Dispatch print shop published her book in August 2008 before closing last month.

"I've always been into children's literature," Artur said. "My ultimate dream job would be to be a children's book publisher."

But that would demand a move to New York City, and Artur said she had been happy living in the Fan district since the summer after her junior year at Richmond, when she and her friends rented an apartment to have as seniors.

That summer, Artur worked as a writing fellow with School of Continuing Studies students and continued her junior year job at the Midlothian Goddard School, an independent chain of preschools. The previous summer she had taught at the one near her hometown of Jenkintown, Pa. She switched to Seven Pines Elementary School in Richmond to student-teach during her senior year.

Artur said living off-campus during her senior year influenced her decision to stay in Richmond after graduation.

"I got to experience what life is like outside of the Richmond bubble and saw all of the cool things that the Fan has to offer," Artur said.

Although she doesn't envision working at the Times-Dispatch for the 26 years that White did, Artur said, she plans to stay for another few years.

Besides coordinating "Kids Extra," Artur has three main responsibilities. She runs the regional spelling bee, which will be held March 14 at the Library of Virginia. She promotes newspaper presence in schools of all levels -- elementary, middle and high school -- throughout Central Virginia. She sent out 2.8 million copies last year. She coordinates in-paper features with other organizations, such as "African American Trailblazers" with the Library of Virginia for Black History Month.

The English program is one reason Artur chose Richmond, which is where her younger sister Allie is a senior at Richmond and the graphics editor of The Collegian.

In addition to Brown's education classes, Artur said she felt prepared by a creative writing class with Steven Barza, a former English professor. Artur said she also enjoyed film and English classes with English professor Abigail Cheever.

"Because I was an English major, my writing style didn't translate well to journalism," Artur said.

Brown said White's motivation to create her position in the mid-1970s was to increase newspaper readership. Artur's magazine and book have achieved this as well as moved toward her goal of children's book publishing.

"I don't really think of myself as successful," Artur said. "I think that I was lucky. I had a lot of things fall right into my lap, the internship for one, and then Betty retiring at the time when I would be looking for a full-time job."

Contact staff writer Maura Bogue at maura.bogue@richmond.edu