This paper explores moving beyond the increasing pressure and trend of incorporating experiential learning opportunities in undergraduate university courses to one of having the course as a whole be the experiential learning opportunity. Political science experiential learning opportunities tend to fall into three categories: (1) components of a course (e.g., conducting a survey or interview, simulations, teaching assistantships); (2) learning the research craft (e.g., independent study courses, honours theses, and research assistantships); (3) paid work experiences (e.g., internships). Few experiential learning opportunities combine all three models such as for organizing an academic workshop, the focus of this paper. We examine the lessons learned from organizing the winter 2023 Rough Waters: The Legacy of the Marshall Decisions workshop where twelve students were extensively involved in planning and facilitating the event. Students received both course credit and payment for their work. The focus of this article is on what worked well, what did not work so well and why, how to assess the effectiveness of workshop organization as an experiential learning tool, and how to address the main challenges for its potential future use.