The La Trobe Rural Health Innovation Sprint program is in its second year and brings together students, advocates and experts to discuss issues in rural health, find solutions and present their findings to the community.

Wodonga's Chloe Vinnicombe said she was excited to join this year's program because she was passionate about improving youth mental health.

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"I've seen over the years growing up in a small town when there's a very public mental health issue you see it everywhere," she said.

"I've got lots of loved ones who have gone through the loss of someone due to mental health and it shakes an entire community and you can really see it in small towns, small rural towns such as Albury and Wodonga."

Fellow program participant Amy Roche was also passionate about mental health.

"I've had lots of friends, and myself personally, who have had different mental health challenges over the years," she said.

"I've helped a lot of friends through a lot of different situations, and even a lot of people who I don't really know, and have helped them through different crisis'.

"It's just something I'm very, very passionate about and always wanting to improve the health of everyone across the board."

The first year para-medicine student and Melbourne resident said her own experiences of community were a good example of protective factors to improve mental wellbeing.

"I come from a really tight knit group," she said.

"I've seen people whose parents have essentially kicked them out and the whole community just comes together to make sure this person is OK, or if someone gets sick or a parent is ill the whole community just all of a sudden comes together, like we're all a giant family."

Ms Roche said there needed to be spaces for youth who weren't interested in sport to come together and find community and belonging, which would improve their mental health.

"As far as competitive sport such as football or netball go they have that community, but not everyone wants to play football, not everyone wants to play netball," she said.

"For the people who don't want to do that sort of thing there needs to be some sort of creative outlet, which is going to help them mentally and for them to have space to have the people they can call upon if they don't have them at home."

The program brought students together from across disciplines.

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