When the year ended, a regional competition selected a small team to represent Tunisia in a student innovation fair. Slimène's name was on the list. Standing before the judges, he described not only the machine they'd built—a small, efficient water pump for rural farms—but also the process: how they had surfaced quieter voices in the group, how "perso" decisions about fairness and collaboration mattered to design. The judges nodded; perhaps they heard what his high school had predicted, perhaps they just liked the pump. Either way, Tunisia's flag was pinned to their name on the program.
