Thursday (Oct. 7), Ciara visited  East High School in Memphis, Tenn. to stress the importance of education to 900 high school students. CiCi is a part of the Get Schooled National Challenge along with Ludacris, Keri Hilson and more.

The multi-city tour engages students in an effort to help improve high school graduation rates and ultimately raise college completion rates.

“They can take away your house, they can take away your money, they can take away your clothes, they can take away all those fun materialistic things, but if you have knowledge, you can always get that back,” shared CiCi, who wore a pheasant-print T-shirt, sparkly pinstripe pants, and bejeweled heels. “Knowledge is the foundation to everything.”

Ciara surprised students with a brief impromptu performance of her ladies remix to Chris Brown’s “Deuces.” Watch video of CiCi’s speech & performance below:

VIDEO: Ciara Perfroms “Deuces” Remix for Students

VIDEO: Ciara speaks to Memphis students “Get Schooled” Tour

Props to Ciara for being an inspiration to the kiddies!

Props: RapUp

Photos: WireImage