Online Teacher Honors the Troops with a Civilian Song

As our nation pauses this Memorial Day to honor those who have served our nation, K12 is spotlighting Ciara Drexler, an elementary teacher with IQMN who wrote a powerful song to honor the troops.

Inspired by a friend anticipating their deployment overseas, Ciara wanted to write a song thanking him and other individuals who serve.

“He caught up with me after singing in church one Sunday and asked that I send him recordings of any new music I might be working on,” Ciara said. “This conversation inspired the idea to write a song of gratitude for him and others in the military service.”

And what a song it is! Ciara penned “Civilian Song.” She also reached out to members of her community to produce a powerful video for the song.

“As I began writing I considered how meaningful it might be if the message was expressed by others who had the same sentiment of gratitude,” Ciara said. “A crowd of roughly 200 people showed up to help me film a video of the song in a football field in Alexandria, MN on September of 2011. We sent it to the men and women deployed from our area on Veteran’s Day that year.”

Having family members who served in the military, Ciara felt a personal connection to her lyrics and was glad to share those feelings with the public.

“I respected those in my family who served and I’v e always had a deep appreciation for their service but I also began to realize the debt of gratitude I now owed to those currently serving,” Ciara said.

Ciara will perform “Civilian Song” for the “Boots on the Ground” opening ceremony on September 16th in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. She hopes to professionally re-record ‘Civilian Song’ in the future and continue pursuing her two passions: music and teaching.

“I’m not sure exactly what the future holds, but I’m excited to see where things go!” Ciara said.
After writing ‘Civilian Song,” Ciara was inspired to write and record more music, leading to the release of her first EP “Beautiful You.” Ciara is currently working on developing more songs for a full album. While doing so, Ciara is also grateful for IQMN.

“My favorite aspect of teaching online is providing students with innovative learning opportunities,” Ciara said. “I love the individual relationships I get to build with students and families in this unique format.”