In the spring semester of 2023, the student body and faculty were saddened to hear about the passing of professor Mary Jo (MJ) Iuppa. Iuppa taught in the creative writing department at SUNY Brockport and focused on poetry before her passing. Now, her family has created a contest scholarship to keep her legacy alive.
Iuppa is survived by her husband Peter Tonery, who organized the foundation of the scholarship. They were married for 40 years and Tonery wanted to find a way to commemorate Iuppa’s passion for art and teaching for future generations.
“She taught at virtually every level. She loved writing, she loved art in all forms, and she was dedicated to inspiring students to respect their own creativity and to nurture it,” Tonery said. “And it didn’t matter to her too much or at all whether the art was photography or dance or music or poetry or novel writing. It was the idea of creativity that she wanted to nurture.”
The scholarship that was created with this specific purpose to honor Iuppa in mind is a $1,000 poetry writing contest, judged by faculty in the English department. The prize, unlike most scholarships, is awarded via check directly to the student rather than being applied to university costs internally.
“We wanted to put the money in the hands of the winner and say, ‘Do whatever you want with it.’ You know, probably 99% of the people who create things never get paid anything for it,” Tonery said. “I even look at MJ’s publications. Almost all of them, the only reward was to get a copy of the publication. I’m sure she’d be very happy with the notion that this person has something that they can spend the money on themselves and they can feel a tangible reward.”
The first person to be awarded this scholarship prize is senior creative writing major Brennan Sprague. His poetry entries were the final part of the multi-step competition designed to acquaint more people with Iuppa’s work and give students some final poetry lessons.
“I read her biography and learned all about her and her hobbies. Then we had to write a free verse, a haiku and a cinquain. I’ve never written a cinquain before, so that was fun, and it actually originated in Rochester, which I didn’t know about until I did the application,” Sprague said.
Iuppa’s work left a lasting impression on Sprague, specifically one of her poems entitled “Crossing borders.”
“It’s really timely and it’s really beautiful. Everyone I read influences me and I love her aesthetics and her style, this one just stood out to me,” Sprague said.
Bringing so much of Iuppa’s personal life and work in the competition was a big part of honoring who she was as a person and as a professor. Professor Anne Panning remembers how candid Iuppa was with her students, even when she got sick.
“I credit her a lot with being really honest with the students about it. Like, you don’t see anything about them,” Panning said. “But she was very personable and the students shared her journey. I taught her classes for a couple weeks after she passed away, and we just mainly spent a lot of time mourning her and honoring her and talking about how cool she was and reading her writing.”
Iuppa was truly the biggest cheerleader for her students. This came from her passion to make arts and creativity accessible for everyone. Her knowledge and love of poetry was something she wanted to share with as many students as possible.
“She was one of those professors who always put students first. I mean, she certainly had expertise, but whenever a student would try to do something and they felt, you know, insecure, she’s like, ‘You did it! You just wrote a poem!’ You know, she’d practically start clapping, and, you know, she was really the advocate of the student,” Panning said.
The existence of the scholarship is not only honoring Iuppa, but it honors all the professors and educators like her that were passionate about their work and students.
“It’s a monument to a teacher in a certain way. And in that way, it’s a memorial for all teachers. The notion of remembering her and her respect for creativity and her desire to motivate creativity, it doesn’t just memorialize her, but it memorializes all dedicated teachers,” Tonery said.
This honoring of educators as a whole is reflective of how Iuppa spent her life: educating and encouraging people of all ages to engage with poetry and literature at any level. Not only did she teach at SUNY Brockport, but she taught at St. John Fisher, facilitated creative writing programs for high school students, and had poetry seminars for senior citizens.
The scholarship will exist in perpetuity due to the fundraising efforts of Iuppa’s close family and friends. The university requires a certain amount of money to be donated before it can be invested and turned into a permanent scholarship, and Iuppa’s family ensured that this prize would be around to keep her legacy alive for years to come.
Students from any discipline are welcome to apply and enter the competition during the regular scholarship application period starting November 15, 2025, especially if they have a vested interest in poetry.
“If students have questions about it or want a little help applying for it because it can seem daunting, they should absolutely reach out to the creative writing faculty. We all knew her for years and we really want a student to be honored with this,” Panning said.
With support from the creative writing faculty and the efforts of Iuppa’s family and friends, her poems have taken on a new life of inspiring and awarding students for their hard work and creative minds.
