At a quick glance, Tawny Gause and Chanel Judkins don’t appear to have much in common. They’re 12 years apart and come from different generations. Tawny has a good 6 inches of height on Chanel. Their hair color, fashion styles, professional backgrounds and family dynamics also differ.

But while they’re uniquely themselves — four boys call Tawny “mom” while Chanel is a newlywed, for instance — these millennial and Gen Z women have a strong bond.

Their biggest similarities? Along with being sisters and daughters of a state politician, these Provo natives are also students in the Master of Science in Counseling program at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions and are on course to establishing successful careers in the mental health realm.

Considering service and education are synonymous with Utah Rep. Marsha Judkins (R-Provo) and her family, it’s not surprising that her youngest and oldest daughters are on academic journeys that will help them improve the lives of others.

“I’m really proud of them,” Marsha said. “We need good people in the mental health profession, so I’m really happy they’ve decided to do this.”

“We’re trying to be the good people in mental health,” Tawny responded, smiling.

They didn’t need to look far for a good role model.

Whether she is inviting a person off the streets to join them for Thanksgiving dinner, preparing meals for neighbors, helping community members move and clean their homes, or devoting countless hours as a politician, Marsha often donates her time and resources for the betterment of others’ lives.

It’s why she spent most of the past 12 years as a public servant, advocating for the needs of children and underrepresented women during her time on the Provo City school board (2012-17) and as a member of the Utah House of Representatives. (Though Judkins didn’t run for reelection as a representative this year, she is formulating plans to continue serving her community in a different capacity.)

“My mom is very service-oriented and giving. She will give you anything,” Chanel said. “She legitimately wants to help people. It’s pretty amazing.”

Tawny calls her mother “really, really giving,” but lovingly teases her mom for struggling to say no to people in need even when it might be in her best interest to do so.

“My kids are going to have to be my counselors,” Marsha said with a grin.

Marsha admits to not always enforcing strict boundaries when it comes to prioritizing her own needs over others — whether it’s helping strangers or taking grandkids to meetings to assist her children — but that habit comes from a sincere place. She’s been concerned with others’ welfare since her parents taught her the importance of service at a young age while growing up in Roseville, California, and then South Jordan.

Her RMU-attending daughters appreciate the benevolent example Marsha provides. Tawny and Chanel are proud to carry on the selfless tradition of charity. Growing up with neurodiverse siblings who experienced bullying, mental health issues, struggles and traumatic experiences helped them realize the importance of being caring and empathetic in a real-life situation. The fact that one of their sisters donated a kidney to save a stranger’s life earlier this year is another example of the love the family willingly shares.

“I just really love people. If someone saw my kid in need, I would hope that they would do something,” Marsha said. “I truly believe that if one person is suffering, then we are all suffering. We can’t not help and think that we’re OK, because we’re all interconnected. I just feel it’s really important to do our best.”

Service can have unexpected rewards, too. Chanel met her husband while serving people in the Dominican Republic during a humanitarian mission five years ago.

Though they’re in different stages of life, Tawny, 39, and Chanel, 27, are thrilled to have ended up studying at the same college and to be on similar professional paths at the same time. Tawny is one semester ahead of her younger sister, and they’re both on track to graduate with master’s degrees in 2025.

“It’s so nice to have somebody who’s also in it at the same stage as you,” Tawny said. “It’s been really great to have someone there. It just makes you feel a little bit understood.”

“It’s really nice to be able to talk to someone that understands exactly what I’m going through,” added Chanel, noting her excitement that they’ll attend a two-day training together in September. “It’s just going to be really fun for us to be in the same profession and be able to share.”

As with service, the sisters take after their mom in their educational endeavors. As a young mother of five, Marsha returned to Brigham Young University to finish her bachelor’s degree in political science 10 years after starting as a freshman at Bingham High. She returned to BYU to earn a master’s degree in public administration when Chanel, her youngest, was in middle school.

“Education has always been pretty important in our family,” Marsha said. “I’m really proud of these girls and the effort that they’re putting in and the commitment. It’s hard when you go back, and they both made the decision to go back and work hard at it for a really good cause.”

Tawny became a personal trainer — in addition to being a busy stay-at-home mother and wife — and decided to pursue counseling as a career after helping clients experience massive life changes through fitness transformations.

“You could just tell something had shifted in their brain. That was the most rewarding part,” she said. “It sounds so cliche, but I love the idea of helping people. That’s what Chanel also likes … because there’s so much need.”

In particular, Tawny is drawn to “women empowerment.” She plans on becoming certified in sex therapy to help women with issues regarding a topic that can be tough to talk about in a conservative society. In her current job at a private practice, she helps women work on challenges like eating disorders, body image issues, depression and anxiety.

She’s inspired by the book “The Choice: Embrace the Possible,” which is Holocaust survivor Edith Eva Eger’s powerful and poignant memoir and guide to healing.

Chanel intended on becoming a lawyer and worked as a dental assistant and paralegal in her early adult years. She switched gears when seeing how helpful counselors were to immigrants seeking asylum while she worked as a case manager for the Department of Homeland Security in Salt Lake City a few years ago. She was touched by an experience in which an immigrant from Venezuela was comforted by a trained counseling professional as he grieved not being able to be with his ailing mother in his home country.

“As a case manager, I couldn’t do very much,” Chanel said. “But I saw other people who could do something, and it was the counselors. I really like that. I realized I wanted a little more connection.”

Chanel is fluent in Spanish, having learned it in school, on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and through her relationship with her husband, who is from the Dominican Republic. This helps her communicate and connect with the Hispanic population in Utah.

While studying at RMU, Chanel is working for the Boys & Girls Clubs, where she helps families who are homeless or at risk of being displaced from their homes. She’s also gaining required hands-on experience by providing therapy at the RMU Counseling Clinic on the university’s Provo campus.

“Counseling is just a totally different thing where you can really get to the root of what’s going on with someone and what’s causing their reactions to life, to others, to experiences,” Chanel said. “I really like it.”

Serving others is in her DNA, after all. Like mother, like daughters.

“When they see other people, they don’t really judge. They want to help,” Marsha said. “I think it’s a really beautiful thing.”

Jody Genessy is the senior content writer for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.