Stephanie Bagnall, Author at The Orbital

8Nov

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

The Greatest Treasures of Budapest

Budapest was created in 1873 by the merger of three cities: Buda, Óbuda and Pest and it’s the capital of Hungary. Its inspiring architecture, beautiful river views, and the world-famous 16th-century thermal baths make this city a popular attraction to many. Whether it’s a romantic escape or a squad adventure, Budapest is home to many incredibly beautiful treasures and landmarks that you cannot miss if you visit. Buda Castle The historical palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest sits on the south tip of Castle Hill, on what is known as the Várnegyed (castle district). Built in 1247, Buda castle was one of the Largest gothic building in the middle ages. If you visit here you should set aside one whole day to do so as it is not only a magnificent building, but it is also home ...

27Oct

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Lifestyle

Disconnect To Reconnect

No one can deny that we, on the whole, are a social media obsessed generation. The average person has five social media accounts and spends an average of 1 hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day, according to the latest quarterly report from Global Web Index (GWI). After finding out about these staggering statistics, I decided to take a break from social media and delete all my apps for a month. These are some things that I learnt. My levels of procrastination decreased wonderfully and it was incredible. I was doing double the work in half the time. I felt amazing. Mostly because this all meant that I had more time to do what I loved with the extra minutes that I had left over. I was painting more, writing more and feeling much more satisfied and content knowing that I...

26Oct

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

Debrief: Polly Goddard

I had the pleasure to visit Polly in her family home in Fleet where she lives with her parents, younger brother and grandmother. Polly kindly met me at the station and walked me to her house. We chatted about school, how our days had been so far and engaged in some general chit chat as we approached her house. Her room, decorated with a sweet plum purple paint, is lined with strings of polaroids containing images of family and friends. She sits on her patchwork covered sofa next to her desk, very neatly arranged with all the stationary a young academic could need. We start by discussing her initial diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She recounts getting ill and the doctors originally thinking that she had tonsilitis. It was in fact her mum that persisted in saying “this isn’t Po...

“You saw it in the tears of those who survived” – The Grenfell Tower Mural

17Sep

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

News

“You saw it in the tears of those who survived” – The Grenfell Tower Mural

A mural to honour the victims and survivors of the Grenfell Tower was created on Thursday 21st July in London at Village Underground. Painted by the renowned English street artist, Ben Eine, the mural featured a poem about the disaster by the Booker Prize winner and Nigerian writer Ben Okri. Okri's poem "Grenfell Tower, June 2017", composed in the days after the fire and first broadcast on Channel 4 News and published in the Financial Times, will be rendered across the 120-square-metre wall of the Village Underground on Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, East London. The lines "You saw it in the tears of those who survived" will appear in Eine's colourful style – with the full 1,600-word poem appearing across the wall as the background to the main text. Bahari - ‘This mural is our attempt to...

A Throwback On Education… What Was Is It All For?

22Feb

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

A Throwback On Education… What Was Is It All For?

As a Fresher, it’s scary to think of this time a year ago. A level exams crept nearer and nearer and we were nervously waiting on UCAS confirmations of university offers and places. It is also scary to think of this time three years ago where our GCSEs were dawning upon us, keeping us at revision sessions after school and trapping us in 5 lesson a day. Its also incredible to think that 8 years ago, we were at primary school where the most homework we got was a few sheets of questions a week. I come from a community in which education is, on the whole, discouraged. I am lucky enough to have a family who let me choose to stay in school and ch ose my own career path. This was not the case for many of my peers where they are not given so much of a freedom. There was an attitude of ‘what fo...

14Nov

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

Coming Out as a Person of Colour

The BME Network's ‘Coming out as a person of Colour’ panel discussion event was held on the 11th of October, which was also ‘National Coming Out Day’. The panel consisted of Louisa Danquah as the BME Representative, Grace Almond (President of the Women of Colour Collective) and Sherina St John as the BME Officer of LGBT+ Society. The evening was made up of a panel based discussion amongst the three representatives, and then question-led discussion was developed after. The night was mostly about sharing experiences. Coming out stories, people's encounters with homophobia and how to deal with it, and also, family reactions to individual's coming out. Social preconceptions were squashed, such as small minded opinions like if you don’t come out as LBGT ‘officially’ then you are not a ‘real ...

Meet our new board member: Stephanie Bagnall

7Nov

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

Meet our new board member: Stephanie Bagnall

Stephanie is a first year English and Theatre student, and our new Deputy Features Editor! She talks to our Editor, Holly Pyne, about why she joined The Orbital. Why did you choose Royal Holloway? I chose Royal Holloway because I really liked the joint honours course and being so close to London for a drama student is great, but I also wanted a beautiful green campus! I loved the feeling of community here, and I fell in love with founders library! Why did you get involved with The Orbital? I really want to get involved and get experience with any form of writing and media. I love to write and create work with other people, but also wanted to opportunity to meet new people too, so Orbital is perfect for me. What do you hope to achieve within the section? I hope t...

24Oct

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Features

Reporting on the Women’s Network

Giant boobs, Bra Pong, Pizza and boob-shaped cupcakes? It must be the first RHUL Women's Network event of the year! Sarah Newell (the Women's Officer) pulled off a marvellous ‘Safety in Numbers' evening, allowing a platform for four very important societies; The ‘LGBT+ society', ‘Feminism society', ‘Women of Colour Collective' and last but not least, the ‘CoppaFell Uni Boob team'. These four societies met on the night of the 5th of October in Crosslands to share ideas for the Women's campaign and to meet new like-minded people from the groups. The night was great fun but with lots of relevant talk relating to current issues that are still faced today such as the problem with equal pay, issues with expectations of body image and rape culture. A really helpful leaflet was also given wi...

18Oct

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

Question Time: A Review

Royal Holloway Question Time was held in the Windsor Auditorium on the 6th October. Organised by the Labour and Cooperative Society, the panel consisted of Richard Angell as Director of Progress, Tom Brake standing for the Liberal Democrats MP, the SU President Natasha Barrett, Claire McCarthy for General Secretary of the Cooperative Party and Michel Howe as the Conservative Society President. As the first Question Time event held so far, it was considered a great success held by all. Topics and questions raised by the audience included whether politics is getting to aggressive as a response to the murder of Jo Cox and other recent attacks on MPs. The board blamed these mainly on the apparent rise of hate crime stemming form the EU Referendum and also on the opinion that the rise of ...