From the Голоса web site (http://www.gwu.edu/~slavic/golosa/audio/eric.htm).
Э́рик Ка́ц was born in Да́ллас in the шта́т of Теха́с, but after high шко́ла, he became a студе́нт in a small ко́лледж in Нью-Йо́рк. His main интере́с was Russian area studies, and he was fascinated by everything having to do with Росси́я: as a freshman, he signed up for ку́рсы in ру́сская литерату́ра, исто́рия, политоло́гия, геогра́фия, филосо́фия, му́зыка, and культу́ра. He read all the Russian кла́ссики: Пу́шкин, Достое́вский, Толсто́й, and Че́хов.
Э́рик also took courses in ру́сский язы́к. To practice his ру́сский язы́к, Э́рик visited all sorts of ру́сские вебса́йты on the Интерне́т. There he read ру́сские журна́лы and газе́ты, listened to ру́сское ра́дио and watched ру́сское телеви́дение. He also rented lots of ру́сские видеофи́льмы.
Э́рик was especially interested in ру́сская исто́рия, from the time of the all-powerful цари́, like Пётр I through the перио́д of коммуни́зм under Soviet rulers such as Ле́нин, Ста́лин, Хрущёв, and Бре́жнев to those under whom Росси́я moved towards the West: Горбачёв, Е́льцин, and Пу́тин.
In his senior year, Э́рик traveled to Росси́я and spent the семе́стр in Москва́, Са́нкт-Петербу́рг, Волгогра́д, and Воро́неж. After the spring семе́стр ended in ма́й, Э́рик left Росси́я and spent all summer - all ию́нь, ию́ль, and а́вгуст traveling around Центра́льная А́зия. In countries as remote as Казахста́н, Узбекиста́н, Таджикиста́н, and even far-off Кыргызста́н, Э́рик found that he could communicate with just about everyone using his ру́сский язы́к.
Before leaving Росси́я, Э́рик invited his new friend А́нна to visit him in Аме́рика. Э́рик wanted А́нна to see Да́ллас, where his ма́ма, па́па, and сестра́ lived. And of course, А́нна wanted to travel all around the США́: from Бо́стон to Вашингто́н, from Чика́го to Атла́нта and Майа́ми, and then on to Хью́стон, Ло́с-А́нджелес, Са́н-Франци́ско, and Сиэ́тл.
After returning to Аме́рика, and after А́нна came to visit, Э́рик finished his studies and considered a future карье́ра, perhaps as a журнали́ст or a профе́ссор or as a би́знес-консульта́нт for firms dealing with Росси́я and Центра́льная А́зия. With his solid knowledge of ру́сский язы́к and ру́сская культу́ра, Э́рик knew that he would find many opportunities.