ACL: Adversity, courage, and legacy

Escrito por: Maximo Legaspi 🇵🇭

Headshot of Juliana Bonfrisco. (Sanya Wason)

Juliana Bonfrisco is no stranger to challenges and hard work. Through tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her senior year of high school to beginning college in a new state away from her family, the senior kinesiology and psychology major has made it a long way. 

Through that time and through many changes, Bonfrisco knew one thing: she wasn’t going to sit behind a desk for the rest of her life.

“I didn’t want to be behind the screen. I wanted to be active, and the only way I knew that was through sports,” she said.

Sports are an integral part of her identity, as her mother’s family in Colombia were all involved in athletics in some way. 

Growing up in Princeton, New Jersey, Bonfrisco kept up the family legacy. Like her mother, she played basketball throughout her childhood and into high school and college, even after her ACL injury.

Regardless of any setbacks, she was still determined to keep on going. As a first-generation student, it was never a question of if she would attend college, only where and how.

Pushed by her family, Bonfrisco decided to take a leap of faith and applied to go to college out of state. For her, the uncertainty and new environment would allow her to grow in ways that she wouldn’t have been able to had she stayed in New Jersey.

After sending in her application to the University of Maryland, Bonfrisco remembers traveling to an almost empty campus to look around with her mother. Despite most of the student body being absent, she felt something special.

Family of Juliana Bonfrisco. (Courtesy of Juliana Bonfrisco)

“I sat down on McKeldin with my mom, and we prayed that I was gonna get accepted into the school... I was like, ‘This is the school for me,’” she said.

In her hometown, Bonfrisco had few Latina friends, so the diverse community of the school also played a big role in her decision to attend UMD. 

Through various organizations, like the Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc., she feels that she has embraced her culture in a way she previously wasn’t able to. 

Inspired by the physical therapists who helped her recover from her ACL injury, Bonfrisco chose to major in kinesiology, pairing her love for sports with the desire to help others. 

Bonfrisco hopes to attend graduate school after getting her undergraduate degree and eventually pursue a career in counseling. 

She credits her family, friends, and community for helping her get to where she is today.

“It takes a village... I support them; they’re going to support me as I move forward,” she said.

Hija mía, siempre con “Hija mía, siempre con fuerza has logrado realizar cada sueño que la vida te ha dado la oportunidad de vivir. Tu constancia y dedicación te ayudarán a llegar a la meta deseada, llenando mi corazón de orgullo y felicidad.” - Bonfrisco’s mother