RALEIGH, N.C. (CNN Newsource/WRAL/WKRC) - A North Carolina man is celebrating after beating drug addiction and homelessness to earn three college degrees.

Michael Watkins is now working on his fourth degree.

He has been accepted into a doctoral degree program where he is studying healthcare administration.

Watkins says he was a drug addict who lived on the streets and in shelters in Raleigh for 20 years.

But thanks to people who believed in him, Watkins went clean and went back to school in 2015.

Since then, he has earned an associate, a bachelor's, and a master's degree.

Watkins admits he still struggles to find work because of his past mistakes.

But he gives back by serving as a Red Cross Emergency Response Volunteer in disaster zones, like Alabama and Louisiana post-Katrina, Texas during the 2016 flood, and Oregon's 2020 wildfires.