40 Under 40: Navjot Takhar

The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce has launched its “40 Under Forty” for 2020. The chamber is now calling for nominations.

This is the Kelowna chamber’s sixth year of searching for the city’s high achievers and bringing their stories to the public.

BDO Canada LLP will make up the independent panel of judges.

There will be a wrap-up celebration for recipients once the program has concluded.

As a visible minority, Navjot acknowledged that she was different and set out from a young age to inspire other youth to have confidence. Navjot feels very fortunate that her parents chose Kelowna to settle down and begin a family, where she was born and raised.

Navjot’s parents began the family business of Evergreen Building Maintenance Inc. over thirty years ago. Evergreen operates in various municipalities throughout B.C. and Alberta and employs 234 individuals. Navjot is proud to be furthering their vision as an accounts manager and oversees client relations within the corporation. She has seen her parents go through a great deal of struggle to build the foundation of this company, and later saw her brother play a significant part in growing their vision. After graduation Navjot became more involved with her parent’s company and is grateful to be a part of a company that contributes to the community and local charities.

As a previous Miss Kelowna Lady of the Lake and British Columbia Ambassador, Navjot has had the opportunity to truly immerse herself in community service and learn from people from all walks of life. Through these platforms she was able to use her charisma to inspire the youth demographic to pursue post-secondary education and set their goals into plans. Navjot was proud to be the first BC Ambassador from Kelowna to take home this provincial title. Navjot played in both indoor and outdoor field hockey leagues during high school and wanted to give back as a leader. She was a volunteer field hockey coach and taught the Grade 7 girls team at Chute Lake Elementary School. The importance of teamwork and working cooperatively are skills that she was happy to teach young athletes

Navjot began volunteering at the age of 15 at Kelowna General Hospital, where she has documented over 550 hours working in several departments. The closest to her heart was the “patient tea and delivery cart”. This was a service implemented in the dementia ward. It was heart breaking to experience how the aging demographic is neglected, often the patients’ only social activity in the day would be seeing the volunteers drop in with tea and a newspaper. Because of her hard work and dedication, Navjot was selected to be in the promotional KGH Auxiliary video and recruited many peers to give back. The roles of Miss Kelowna and BC Ambassador entailed extensive volunteer work in various charities including helping out at fundraisers, walks and retirement homes.

Since high-school, Najot has been a math tutor, field hockey coach, science kids camp leader and orientation leader at UBCO to give back her time. Being a part of Evergreen has also allowed her to give back. Evergreen provides numerous scholarships to several different universities through COBBS. They are also proud to financially support several charities each quarter, including the BC Cancer Foundation, United Way, and the BC Children’s Hospital to name a few.

Navjot has a Bachelor of Science from UBC Okanagan, where she majored in Microbiology and Immunology. Navjot received the Chancellor’s Scholar Designation and the Deputy Vice Chancellors Scholarship during her four years of studies. Navjot hopes to further her education by obtaining her Doctor of Dental Medicine.

Navjot has received various awards; the British Columbia Ambassador where she was the first to win from Kelowna, the Civic Community Leader Awards for Top Youth Honour, Miss Kelowna Lady of the Lake and the Rotary Youth Leadership Award.

40 Under 40: Navjot Takhar

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