Fine Focus is the first product-based course of its kind at Ball State University, and is poised to meet the AAAS recent call to action for transformative learning in biology. In utilizing the skill sets of 12 undergraduate students spanning 4 departments, Fine Focus has developed a peer-reviewed academic digital and print journal whose mission is to publish findings of undergraduate research internationally. We hypothesize that this “immersive learning” course provides participating students direct experience in double-blind peer-reviewed manuscript management, copy editing, and marketing/advertising available nowhere else. Participating students gain a multitude of experiences through collaborations with professionals from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). Such experiences include acquisition of a working knowledge on scientific writing, editing, peer review, graphic design, and advertising, and professional correspondence with authors and reviewers, as they relate to dissemination of microbiological research data through an academic journal with an international scope. This multifaceted learning impact is assessed through student surveys, progress report notebooks, and self-evaluation exercises, which consistently indicated that Fine Focus offered exposure to techical aspects of manuscript review and data analyses not available in traditional content courses. After 4 semesters, Fine Focus has established an Editorial Board of more than four dozen experts in microbiology and is publishing the first issue in January 2015 that includes 6 published articles on original undergraduate research. Students leave the course having also established permanent career-relevant contacts in varied subdisciplines of microbiology worldwide, and the leadership development skills necessary to serve their profession in the realm of peer-reviewed research, a vital skill in today’s community of scientists.