Harlan Kredit (born 1939) is a multiple award-winning Dutch-American high school teacher from Lynden, Washington. He was the first Washingtonian teacher ever to be inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. He has spent the majority of his career at Lynden Christian High School. Kredit is also a ranger at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming during the summer and a prolific photographer for the National Park Service.
Kredit has gained renown for his "investigative" approach to teaching secondary biology and emphasis on leadership, and for his efforts in fish and wildlife conservation, particularly along Whatcom County's Fishtrap Creek (which eventually dispenses into Puget Sound). His students know him for his familiar exclamation of "It's a great day to be alive!"
Harlan Kredit was born and raised in Lynden, Washington, alongside Fishtrap Creek, which contained "huge numbers of salmon each fall."
Kredit graduated from Calvin College in 1961 and taught high school science education in Hudsonville, Michigan from 1962 to 1972. In 1967 he gained a master's degree in Science Teaching from the College of William and Mary.
Switzerland (/ˈswɪtsərlənd/), officially the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a country in Europe. While still named the "Swiss Confederation" for historical reasons, modern Switzerland is a federal directorial republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities, called Bundesstadt ("federal city"). The country is situated in Western and Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global and economic centres, Zürich and Geneva.
The establishment of the Swiss Confederation is traditionally dated to 1 August 1291, which is celebrated annually as the Swiss National Day. The country has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. Nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to numerous international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably it is not part of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area. However the country does participate in the Schengen Area and the EU's single market through a number of bilateral treaties.