A key to keeping students engaged in school may be as easy as welcoming them every day by name and giving them a smile, said Dr. Robert Brooks, a psychologist and faculty member of Harvard Medical School who will be a keynote speaker at the National Dropout Prevention Conference Saturday, Oct. 5, through Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Aurora’s Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center. “When you interview people who have faced great adversity in their lives as children and adolescents but are now doing relatively well in life and you ask them what helped them through their hard times, almost all respond that there was one person who encouraged and believe in them,” Brooks said. “That person often turns out to be a teacher.” Brooks’ speech Monday will highlight a strength-based approach for preventing students from dropping out, with a focus on the relationships that students have with teachers and other professionals in a school setting.