“The day I stepped on TCU’s campus, my goal was to at least run for student body president,” Folan said. 

During his first year, Folan ran for freshman class representative and made connections with other current officers in the Student Government Association. Folan said this early involvement on campus later proved useful in his advancement to student body president. 

“I was impressed from the moment I met him because he’s just so sincere and so genuine and really does want to make a difference,” Chancellor Victor Boschini said. 

Besides his job as student body president, Folan remains active around campus in other organizations. He is a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and works as a tour guide for TCU Student Foundation, which he said was one of his favorite activities.

“There’s not a better feeling in the world than seeing the students you give tours to say you’re the one that convinced me to come here,” Folan said. 

Student body treasurer and junior finance major David Belpedio said Folan helped influence him in running for officer positions in SGA his own first year. 

“He kept pushing me to continue to get involved and make a difference at TCU,” Belpedio said.  

“He’s really good about getting those younger people involved in SGA and he’s spent a lot of time cultivating the freshman and sophomores,” Boschini said. “I really think the fingerprints of what he’s done will occur a couple years from now, even.”

Folan said his leadership and speech skills began at an early age as a member of the Boy Scouts of America where him and both of his brothers became Eagle Scouts. 

“That’s where I realized it luckily came naturally to me,” Folan said. “When I have sons, they will definitely be going through Boy Scouts.” 

He also contributes his inspiration to become a leader to his older brother.

“I remember my brother being president of his senior class and then saw him be president of his university that he went to," Folan said. “Just seeing the difference he was making…he was a really big role model to me, and I wanted to be able to make a difference just like he was.” 

In the future, Folan said he hopes to start a career in finance, taking skills from his summer internship at Cobalt International Energy in Houston where he worked as a financial analyst.

“One of my long term goals in life is to own a major league baseball team,” Folan said. “I’ve had that dream since about fifth grade when I started my baseball collection.” 

Folan said he is not opposed to continuing a career in government, even going as far as  becoming the president of the United States. 

“If that opportunity presented itself where I could run for political office, I’d probably take it,” Folan said. “I just want to take the business route first.”  

The next SGA meeting is at 5 p.m. Oct. 2 in the Chambers room of the Brown-Lupton University Union.