TORRINGTON – Stephen Rosko has been tinkering with cars and trucks for as long as he can remember. And so it is no surprise that he recently became certified as a master school bus technician at All-Star Transportation’s service center in Torrington.

In fact, at age 23, he is one of the youngest master technicians at All-Star.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands and doing this sort of stuff,” says Rosko, who joined All-Star as a full-time employ a little over three years ago. Prior to that he was a college student pursing a degree in criminal justice with an eye toward becoming a police officer.

“I didn’t like how the criminal justice (system) was going and what it takes to be a cop these days,” he says.

So, he focused on what he knew and liked. He took a job at the Torrington location, where he had worked as a student at Wamogo High School in Litchfield.

“When I was still in high school, I spent summers here working with my father,” he says. His father is Steve Rosko, the director of maintenance for All-Star Transportation, who also began his career with the company as an entry-level mechanic out of Wamogo High School.

“I started as a helper and worked my way up,” the younger Rosko explains, adding that he likes working for his father, even though he might face a little more scrutiny than others.

“He’s extremely smart,” he says of his father. “He’s helped me out with a lot of everything in this career.”

To achieve master technician status, the younger Rosko had to successfully complete a series of six exams offered by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence that tested his knowledge of mechanical systems specific to school buses. He studied and passed all the tests in a year, completing the final one in June.

At the Torrington location, Rosko works on both propane- and diesel-fueled vehicles. As for the future, he says his next step is to complete certifications offered by individual manufacturers for their specific vehicles.