Kelso High student Sophie Lindsay has won the opportunity to do an internship at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research in the cancer research department.

And with an interest in cancer, plus a goal of working in the medical field and helping people, the internship couldn't be better suited to Sophie.

"I'm pretty pumped," she said.

"It's going to be very interesting learning about how they go through researching cancer, and looking at ways to treat it."

After being encouraged by her science teacher to enrol in the Young Australians' Cancer Initiative (YACI) program, Sophie spent two school terms participating in fortnightly mentoring sessions with a student from the University of Melbourne.

This culminated with an excursion to the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, where Sophie and the others attending got a tour of the facility and were able to see inside the labs.

The excursion left Sophie wanting more, so she submitted an essay into the YACI high school competition discussing the prevalence of skin cancer in Bathurst.

Her piece discussed how Bathurst has a high level of skin cancer cases, and focused on the importance of raising awareness in younger people to prevent them getting skin cancers throughout their lives.

"I spoke about the prevalence of skin cancer in my area and the way that young people can have an impact on the future of cancer prevention," Sophie said.

"I think it's quite interesting to talk about. It's such a preventable cancer. Young people, if they start learning about how to prevent it early, then the numbers will drop dramatically."

Knowing quite a few people who have had skin cancers was part of the reason why Sophie decided to write her piece on the subject.

And also the fact that while a lot of cancers aren't easily preventable, there are numerous measures people can take to avoid getting skin cancer, and Sophie really wants to bring this to light.

This is why her goal is to work in the medical field when she's older, and while she doesn't know specifically what role she will pursue, she knows the aim is to help people in whatever way she can.