In a room inside the big, brick, downtown YMCA building, Garfield kids and Franklin kids are socializing. And I’m OK with it.

I know that sounds like heresy, but there are also students from Roosevelt, Cleveland and Rainier Beach talking. So maybe the men and women of Garfield and the children of Franklin have found some common ground.

At the head of the room, a man holds a ball of yarn and waits for the kids to settle down. No, he doesn’t knit — not because he believes he’s too manly, but because the ball of yarn will serve a purpose larger than a sweater or a hat. Even if that sweater were made to fit Biggie*. The man at the head of the room is Nick Siler, Curriculum Development Manager for the global leadership organization One World Now, and what he’s about to do with his yarn involves not needles, but rather the flags of the world and an iPod.

The students in the room split into groups of ten, each group containing people from different backgrounds, schools, neighborhoods and races. Each group is holding a different country’s flag, and for now, no one knows why only certain countries are represented.

Siler introduces an activity called “Globally Intertwined”. The students are about to trace the journey taken by the different components of an iPod before it arrived at the YMCA today. No one groans. These kids know that the organization hosting today’s workshop, One World Now, will make it worth their while.

The ball of yarn starts in the hands of whichever country harvests the materials and is passed on to the country that refines them, then to the countries that assemble the parts and iPods. It ends with the United States, where most of us buy our iPods.

Afterwards, the kids discuss how the knot of yarn relates being a “global citizen”. Global citizenship is about knowing our physical and social connections with the rest of the world.

“When I buy an iPod, I’m affecting a 10-year-old in the Congo,” says Siler as he explains global citizenship. “It’s about how my actions have an effect on the world.”

One World Now was founded in 2002 by Christin Hayden, an activist with a vision of social justice and equal opportunities for all. Participants study Chinese or Arabic through after-school classes twice a week. They also attend weekly leadership workshops on Fridays at the YMCA. It’s at these classes that OWN shows its true colors and really starts to own.

“In a post 9/11 world, it was about breaking down the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality”, says Jennifer Tanaka, Director of Programs at OWN.

One of the program’s goals is to give kids of lower income families an opportunity not usually available to anyone in the lower tax brackets. But the leadership classes are valuable for everyone, as they strive to help kids discover their potential as community leaders. Garfield junior Carmen Garcia, who is studying Mandarin Chinese through OWN, sees the leadership experience as a major benefit.

“OWN, I guess, gives kids a voice in a way to speak their mind, especially the ones that are shy,” says Garcia.

The organization also serves low-income students through scholarships for OWN’s summer camps. OWN’s camps give students who are unable to afford most summer programs a chance to keep studying their language, and get to know other kids in the program.

At the end of the two years, students in OWN get a chance to take a trip to a country where the language they’ve been studying is spoken. This year, students can choose from 13 countries. For most Arabic students, it’s Morocco or bust, and you can guess where the destination is for many of those studying Chinese.

But whatever path these kids choose, they come out of OWN with a whole new skill set. Siler describes the change in the students as “getting ownership of their lives and responsibilities.”

“Maybe before the program, they’re saying ‘I can’t do anything,’ but afterward, we’re hearing ‘I can do this, I can go to college,’” says Siler.

*Biggie complimented me on my sweater the other day. Just thought that might help my street cred.