Courtesy Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions

If you accidentally mistake Kylee Crook and McKenna Marks for being twins, you’re certainly not alone. That understandable gaffe happens a lot — and for good reason.

Crook and Marks have a lot in common. Red hair. Blue eyes. Fair and freckled skin. Magnetic personalities. Contagious smiles with pearly whites. Utah County upbringing. Similar DNA. Same surname (Crook), parents and two other siblings. An unbreakable bond.

Heck, they even have a shared affinity for watching “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Everybody asks if we’re twins,” Crook said. “We’re pretty close. We’re like the same person.”

“Yeah, we’re always joking about it,” Marks added. “It’s funny because we do look so similar. Sometimes it takes a second for people to figure out who’s who.”

Courtesy Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions

The sisters are actually three years apart, which was more evident in high school when one (Crook, now 24) was a senior and the other (Marks, now 21) a sophomore at Spanish Fork High School.

Their similarities go deeper than physical appearance and their family tree.

Crook and Marks hang out, study and watch movies together. They ran the same marathon — finishing side by side at the same time, of course. The sisters both graduated with bachelor’s degrees from Utah State University and now attend the same graduate school in Provo — Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.

Not surprisingly, they’re both on the same academic and career path, in the same cohort, taking the same classes and pursuing degrees in the Master of Science in medical speech-language pathology program.

They have another relative at RMU in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program; for the record, that brother-in-law doesn’t look like them.

“It’s been really fun to do this together,” Crook said. “Having a study buddy is huge, and it’s just nice to have my sister right there. I feel like I can talk to her about anything, whether it’s school stuff or personal stuff.”

Their college paths didn’t align at first. Crook started at Brigham Young University and then transferred to USU. In 2022, they decided it’d be fun to continue their education together. Along the way, the sisters decided they were interested in pursuing a career on the medical side of speech-language pathology. They wanted to stay close to home in Utah, leading them to RMU.

They began their RMU studies last fall after graduating as Aggies in May 2024. “We thought it would be way fun to do it together,” Crook said.

Crook considered going into teaching or nursing but fell in love with speech-language pathology, which she’d never heard of while growing up, after taking an Introduction to Speech class at USU.

“I just wanted to do something where I could help people,” she said. “I’m really interested in working with kids, especially in a children’s hospital, maybe with swallowing disorders or even head and neck cancer patients. But I think that’s the best part of this program — there’s still time to figure it out.”

Getting hands-on experiences by helping treat real patients at the RMU Health Clinics’ Center for Communication Disorders is a highlight.

Their future profession could lead them to working on a variety of health conditions, from speech to swallowing, in elementary schools, hospitals, nursing homes or elsewhere.

“I just like working with people. I think it’s a really rewarding job to help people communicate,” she said. “What I really like about this career is there are so many different options.”

The thought of working in a pediatric hospital and helping younger people is enticing for Marks.

“I never imagined I’d end up in speech therapy,” Marks said. “But then we both ended up on the same path, which was pretty cool. It’s not something we planned, but it just worked out.”

Marks’ career aspirations mirror her sister’s.

“It was really just about helping people,” she said. “I love that I can make a difference in someone’s life by helping them communicate better, whether it’s with kids or adults.”

They’re both quick to compliment each other.

“She’s always thinking about other people … about how she can help others,” Marks said of Crook. “She’s always trying to make others happy.”

Crook thanked her sister and playfully shared a family secret.

“McKenna has always been deemed like the favorite child of our family. Literally everyone agrees, and it is because she’s just so kind. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her,” Crook said. “For that reason, I think that she’ll be so helpful to the kids that she works with or any of her clients, because she’ll just be understanding and kind to them.”

Nobody will be surprised if they end up working together after they graduate from RMU in 2026. Crook smiled at that possibility and added, “We’ve always talked about how it would be cool to start our own practice together.”

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