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Gloria de Souza
Gloria de Souza (5 April 1937 – 3 April 2013) was a social entrepreneur and first fellow of Ashoka, an international non-profit organization. She is remembered most for her private and public work in educational reform, and is an important figure in modern social entrepreneurship. Her career began in Mumbai, India as a primary school teacher. In 1971, while she was teaching at a private Jesuit school, she was prompted to make changes by adopting experiential and environmental methods in her curriculum. However, seeing how India's rate of brain drain was high at the time, she had ambitions to change India's educational system as a whole.

Career as a Social Entrepreneur
De Souza became an Ashoka (brand name: Ashoka: Innovators for the Public) fellow in 1982. Bill Drayton, the current Ashoka CEO had just founded the organization and opened an office in Delhi, India. He and his colleagues elected de Souza for her talent and commitment to the cause, as well as business acumen. With support from Ashoka, she quit her teaching job and proceeded to build her own local NGO that same year. The NGO, now a Mumbai-based public trust, is called Parisar Asha. Through Parisar Asha, de Souza developed the Environmental Studies program. Her success persuading the Mumbai municipal school board allowed 1,700 public schools to test Environmental Studies in a pilot. In the late 1980s, the Indian government adopted it into its public education system. This bottom-up reform became a curriculum requirement for students grade 1-3.

She collaborated and knowledge-shared with many other NGOs throughout her career. One collaboration in 1988, Defence for Children International evaluated street children and public institutions. They identified possible institutions for 'reception,' 'observation,' and 'rehabilitation,' and found on-the-ground that bureaucratic incompetencies hindered the education and protection of these children worldwide.

Legacy
From more recent interviews and testimonials, it is clear that de Souza remained dedicated to her career and cause throughout her life. A 2011 interview revealed that her goal was never success, but rather, fruitfulness. Her vision, tenacity, and openminded-ness allowed her to introduce tenets of modern, Western education to developing countries.