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Former Philly U basketball standout named a Thiel fellow

Jordan DeCiccio's coffee-based energy-drink business, Sunniva, began in his dorm room.

Philadelphia University point guard Jordan DeCicco with his Sunniva Super Coffee in the Gallagher Center Gym last year.
Philadelphia University point guard Jordan DeCicco with his Sunniva Super Coffee in the Gallagher Center Gym last year.Read moreDAVID SWANSON

Jordan DeCicco, 21, an acclaimed point guard for Philadelphia University's men's basketball team, has been awarded a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship to take a break from school to work on a company he started in his dorm room. Sunniva's first product, Sunniva Super Coffee energy drink, is a blend of organic coffee, lactose-free milk protein, coconut oil and organic maple syrup.

The company, which DeCicco, a New York native, formed with his two brothers, was projecting $2.5 million in sales for 2017.

The two-year fellowship, a program tech investor Peter Thiel's foundation started in 2011, also provides participants with access to a network of technology entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists.

As a sophomore this past school year, DeCicco was enrolled in an independent-study course in entrepreneurship at Philadelphia University. Attending the school on a full basketball scholarship, he took a year off after his freshman year to work on his business, he said in a December interview.