Having decided that she should work in the field of education, which in Portugal at that time was very poor, she took advantage of her stay in London to prepare for her project of establishing a school for kindergarten teachers.

She studied the history of education, reading works by pioneers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Fröbel, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Ovide Decroly, Édouard Claparède and Célestin Freinet.

In 1957-58, she established O Nosso Jardim (Our Garden), where children, together with the trainee teachers and in close relationship with the parents, studied in an open environment.

[1][2][3][4] As the only surviving child, she inherited her parents' estate, much of which she donated to Lisbon City Council in 1986, turning the Casa Veva de Lima (Veva de Lima House), the house where her parents lived and where her mother held famous literary salons, into a living museum.

In her will she left funds to create the Maria Ulrich Foundation to support and develop actions in the field of education and culture within a Christian humanist perspective.