Saint Louis University (SLU) Talged Center encouraged students to let their creative juices flow through their sixth Matchstick Session: “Episode 2.3: The Mind Waddles – A Doodling Workshop” on 06 March 2026 at the Talged Center, 4th floor of the Fr. Hugo Delbaere Building, SLU Main Campus.
Aimed at showing students the importance of doodling to enhance resilience, relieve stress, and enhance creativity by letting the mind waddle while doodling, the Matchstick Session also served as a means for students to come together and make more meaningful connections not only with themselves, but also with others.
Before the session, Talged Center Head Geraldine B. Sanil gave her welcoming remarks to the participants. She reiterated why the workshops in the Talged Center were called “Matchstick Sessions,” saying “The sessions are for us to come together and create, to share our talents, hobbies or interests…”
The symbolic Matchstick Ceremony was held, marking the beginning of the session. According to Ms. Sanil, the Center has used the matchstick as a symbol for the workshops because they likened the spark the matchstick creates to the connection people make with one another when they learn something new.
The facilitator or the luminary for the workshop was Ar. Dulthe Carlo C. Munar, a Louisian alumnus and former instructor at the SLU Architecture department. He is one of the eight Outstanding Citizens of Baguio for Culture and the Arts recognized in 2022, demonstrating his passion and commitment to creativity.
“A doodle is a drawing without meaning. Doodles are just doodles until you make sense of it,” described Ar. Munar as he began his short talk about doodles. He then gave students different doodling activities, such as doodling names and portraits.
Halfway through the activity, Ar. Munar impressed the students by showing an art machine he built, named ‘Harry’. Harry is a small machine that was specifically made for doodling. A pen was attached to it, and its battery-powered limbs would move the pen randomly in a canvas. Throughout the workshop, he checked on the students’ works individually, offering tips and advice on how to improve their drawing skills in general.
As the session ended, the students were given certificates of participation for the workshop. “Anything we do, big or small, we should try to make sense of it for the future, just like doodling,” Ar. Munar then reminded the students.
The workshop, in collaboration with Pilot Pens, had two sessions: in the morning and in the afternoon, accommodating 20 participants in each. The participants were given free drawing pens used in the doodling workshop which motivated them to participate more actively in doodling.
By promoting stress relief and creative freedom, the Matchstick Session helped promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3). (Article by Guenne Gabriel Patano, UIO Intern and Photos by John Aaron Bagni, UIO Intern)
