“Learn, earn, (and) serve” is a slogan that has been used by the U.S. Navy (1943), by the Women’s Army Corps (1944), by the Royal Canadian Navy (1959), by 4-H (1969), and by President Ronald Reagan’s administration (according to former Education Secretary William J. Bennett in 2001). The slogan has not been trademarked and has not been credited to any one person.
 
Mark Carney, a Canadian banker picked to head the Bank of England, said in newspaper articles in 2012 and 2013 that “Learn, Earn, Serve” was his life’s motto.
 
“Learn, do, teach” is a similar term.
 
 
13 December 1932, Jefferson (IA) Bee, “Farm Bureau News,” pg. 3, col. 2:
4-H teaches us leadership cooperation, organization, self-possession, and dignity in our rural homes. It trains us to plan, to work, to play, to learn and earn, to serve, to grow, to appreciate, to achieve, to live, and thus to have a part in the molding of the life in our rural communities.
 
18 November 1943, The Oregonian (Portland, OR), pg. 6, col. 5 ad:
SERVE
EARN
LEARN
in an interesting job
Join the WAVES
(...)
Learn, earn and serve…side by side with the Navy’s fighting men.
 
29 September 1944, The Morning Herald (Hagerstown, MD), pg. 3, col. 4 ad:
Joining the WAC (Women’s Army Corps—ed.) is more than a fine and patriotic duty—it’s one of the smartest things you can do. For the WAC offers you a magnificent opportunity to learn to earn and to serve both your country now and yourself for the future.
 
Google News Archive
26 September 1959, Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Star-Phoenix. pg. 25, col. 7 classified ad:
Learn, earn and serve with the Royal Canadian Navy (Reserve).
 
10 November 1969, Greeley (MO) Daily Tribune, “4-Hers Join Nation’s Best At Congress,” pg. 3, col. 3:
Learn - earn - serve- save is a formula that works for the nation’s 3.5 million 4-H youths.
   
Google Books
Sudden Death:
The Rise and Fall of E.F. Hutton
By Mark Stevens
New York, NY: Penguin Books
1990, ©1989.
Pg. 60:
A legendary workaholic, he virtually lived in his Hutton office and expected others to follow the same “learn, earn, serve” regimen that guided him.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Learn, earn, and serve
Author: Michael J Boskin; University of California, Berkeley. Dept. of Economics.
Publisher: Berkeley, Calif. : University of California at Berkeley, Dept. of Economics, [1996]
Series: Working paper series (University of California, Berkeley. Dept. of Economics), no. 96-248.
Edition/Format: Book : State or province government publication : English
 
Business Week
Business Week
Issues 3722-3725
2001
Pg. 62:
CRUSADERS
Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet members coined the motto ‘learn, earn, and serve” to describe the career path that brought them to the corridors of power, recalls former Education Secretary William J. Bennett.
 
Matt Walaert: an n of 1
October 2, 2012
Learn, Earn, Serve
This post has a backstory.  When I was considering colleges, I was living in Hong Kong and it was really between two great schools: Lewis and Clark (which offered me a full-ride along with a stipend) and Swarthmore (which offered me some aid, but not really very much).  Lewis and Clark, in their extreme interest, also managed to track down an alumnist in Hong Kong (whose name I have long-since lost, which is a shame, since I owe him a great deal).
 
I told him about my options and he was prompt in his reply: “Are you kidding?  Go to Swarthmore.”  Probably not the pitch Lewis and Clark was hoping he’d make.
 
“It is simple.  Money is just money.  Life goes in stages: first you learn, then you earn, then you serve.  Go to Swat, no matter what it costs, then earn good money until you’re 45, are debt-free, and have money saved up, then go serve the ideals you really care about.”
 
Twitter
Alison Loat‏
@AlisonLoat
Life should be ‘to learn, to earn, and to serve.’ Thanks @acoyne for pointing to this fantastic piece on Mark Carney: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/11/30/canadas-boring-banker-our-policy-maker-of-the-year/ …
11:09 AM - 2 Dec 12
 
The Guardian (UK)
Mark Carney: Bank governor’s journey from wilderness to heart of the City
On his first day in charge on 1 July, the new governor will arrive in a very different workplace from the one he has just left
Heather Stewart in Ottawa
Thursday 13 June 2013 13.48 EDT
Mark Carney, the Canadian banker hand-picked by chancellor George Osborne to take the reins at the Bank of England has a life motto: “Learn, Earn, Serve”. And so far, it has all gone exactly to plan.
 
So important was learning that as an 18-year-old he left his home country and enrolled at Harvard, then Oxford, twice, once for a masters and back a few years later for a PhD.