[media-credit name=’DERK MONTGOMERY/Herald Photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]This is part one of a series highlighting some of the most powerful students on the University of Wisconsin campus.

It is no wonder Jennifer Knox, a University of Wisconsin junior, could only find time for an interview while riding the bus.

Knox is a business school student trying to balance her class work with her involvement in multiple student government committees, a national student association and high school tutoring programs. Like many UW students, she has a hectic schedule and struggles to find down time.

But many students also do not have a strong influence in deciding where more than $28 million of student tuition money is allocated.

As chair of the Associated Students of Madison Finance Committee and a Student Services Finance Committee representative, Knox plays an integral role in deciding how student segregated fee money — which totaled more than $28.3 million in the 2004-05 academic year — is divided among various student and campus organizations.

"It's a world of difference from what happens on other campuses," Knox said. "Instead of having to go to the administration and beg for money from 50-year-olds, the money [at UW] is in the hands of the people who know what to do with it."

Each year, a portion of every student's tuition goes to student segregated fees. And any registered student organization, as long as it fulfills a number of criteria, is eligible to receive funding from those fees.

However, before they can receive a dime of student-segregated fees, the organizations must gain approval from the committees Knox sits on.

As Finance Committee chair, Knox presides over a committee to determine how much money student organizations can receive in the form of event, travel or operational grants.

"If an organization wants money to put on a panel or seminar, or travel to a conference, they come to us," Knox said. "We help sustain hundreds of registered student organizations."

Allocating millions of dollars of students' money is a responsibility Knox has earned a reputation for taking "very seriously."

"She's a workaholic," SSFC Chair Rachelle Stone, who works with Knox on a number of ASM committees. "She keeps the student voice in mind in everything she does."

Knox has grown accustomed to the part of campus leader since she was a student at Madison West High School.

As junior class president in high school, Knox said she knew she wanted to get into student government at UW since the day she heard of ASM.

"While at SOAR freshman year, I struck up a conversation with someone from ASM, decided to intern and have been involved in it ever since," Knox said.

However, Knox prides herself on doing more than just student government.

Growing up in a close-knit neighborhood on the Southside of Madison, Knox said she learned the value of giving back to her community at a young age from her father, Ald. Isadore Knox, Jr., District 13.

This is why Knox volunteers as a tutor for the Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence — or PEOPLE — and the Informational Technology Academy, a tutoring program sponsored by DoIT to teach pre-college aged students basic computing skills.

Knox said part of the reason she volunteers as a tutor is to help the many kids from her neighborhood who are involved in the programs.

"All the programs are geared toward recruiting and retaining students on campus," Knox said. "Helping students of color come to the university and be successful is a major goal for me as well."

It is that type of motivation that gives Knox the power to get off the city bus and head back to work.