Last modified: Thursday, July 2, 2009 1:56 AM EDT Chelsea Trouten spent part of her last high school semester traveling through China spending the majority of her time in Shanghai and Beijing teaching English to disabled adults. She is pictured with a traditional Chinese painting hanging in her family's home in Weddington. (Jamey Price/Charlotte Observer/MCT) Early finish meant more time to help: Teen used the extra months to teach in China and train a guide dog By Steve Lyttle McClatchy Newspapers She finished school a semester ahead of her classmates but spent much of her five months off either teaching English at a Chinese factory or training a Labrador retriever to become a seeing eye dog. Now, as she nears graduation, Chelsea Trouten says she is certain of one thing: "I want to do what I can to help in the world." Chelsea, 18, is a member of the first graduating class at Marvin Ridge High in southwestern Union County. But she got a head start on most of the Class of 2009 by completing her schoolwork at the end of the first semester. "I like getting things done," says Chelsea, who took summer classes to get ahead. It runs in the family. "My husband and I each graduated early, and Chelsea's older brother did," adds her mother, Kim Trouten. "I guess it was natural." Given the time off, Chelsea set out to use it. She finished training a Lab named JJ for guide-dog duty, the third she has worked with in recent years. She even persuaded Marvin Ridge Principal Bill Cook to let her bring JJ to school, as part of the dog's training. Then she set off to fulfill another goal: visiting China. While staying with friends of the family in Shanghai, she taught English to middle-school students and workers with physical disabilities. "My dad used to work for Microsoft, and a former co-worker volunteered to host me," Chelsea says. "Going to China was something I'd wanted to do. It's a country that will play a huge role in the world. I wanted to experience life there - and help in some way." She took on a volunteer assignment to teach at a factory. Some of her students were recovering from serious injuries suffered from an explosion at a fireworks plant. The first three days, she assembled auto parts. "The fourth day, they told me to start teaching," she says. "I realized later that for those first three days, we - the employees and I - were building trust in one another." Kim Trouten says she and her husband, Jack, trusted their daughter on the other side of the world. "She is mature, way beyond her years," the mother says. "And we had been to China several times. There is virtually no crime against people there. And she was staying with a really good family." Chelsea missed her senior prom but says the experience was worth it. "I was an introvert before that trip," she says. "It changed me. I think I've come out of my shell." Nancy Titus, the yearbook adviser at Marvin Ridge High, says she began to better understand Chelsea's character two years ago. She was teaching at Weddington High, and Chelsea was finishing her sophomore year there. Titus, preparing to move to Marvin Ridge when it opened in August 2007, was filling out the yearbook staff for the new school and interviewed Chelsea. "I immediately told myself, 'Here's someone who's really responsible,'" she says. "She's very independent, very mature. And she's always looking to help others." The new graduate is headed to Campbell University on scholarship in August - originally, she thought, to study law. That's changed. "The trip to China helped me see the importance of business," she says. "Whatever I do, I'll be trying to do something to make the world a little better. That's how I see my role." Chelsea Trouten, Marvin Ridge Born: Ottawa, Ontario; moved to Texas at 7 and to the Charlotte area a year later. Education: Home-schooled and attended a small private school before entering Weddington High in grades 9 and 10; transferred to Marvin Ridge for grades 11-12. Family: She and her parents - Kim and Jack - and brother Josh, 20, a student at Lee University in Tennessee, live in Weddington. All four Troutens have dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, and Chelsea has visited more than a dozen countries. Hobbies: training guide dogs, hiking, spending time with friends. She works part-time at a tax preparation and consulting firm.